Confessions of a BUFFALO BUTCHER

In 1885, J.A. Allen wrote to the editor of Forest and Stream magazine asking for the readers to contribute any information they had available to help record the demise of the once-great buffalo herds. In this article we print his request, the request of the editor of Forest and Stream to the readers, and one reader’s reply, which I found most interesting.

- Leo J. Remiger

WHAT IS THE PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF THE AMERICAN BISON? – EDITOR FOREST AND STREAM

As is well known, the American bison or “buffalo” has so rapidly decreased in numbers during the last few years that few are not to be found within the limits of the United States, or in the immediately contiguous British territory. If we cannot preserve the bison, we should at least secure a tolerably detailed history of its extirpation. In former years, I gave considerable attention to this subject, and in 1876 published the results of my investigations, illustrated by a map showing its gradual restriction to its then comparatively extended habitat. Its destruction has since gone on at a fearfully rapid pace, till now it is believed to exist within our territorial borders in only very few small numbers and over very restricted areas. Any readers of Forest and Stream who may be able to give exact information as to their destruction and extirpation at particular points during the last decade, and especially within the last five years, will make a most welcome contribution to the history of the last days of this doomed beast. I make the appeal urgently, and in behalf of science, and in the hope that anyone having any facts at command bearing on the subject will feel “in duty bound” to make them known.

– J.A. Allen (Cambridge, Mass.)1

PRESENT RANGE OF THE BUFFALO