udy the animal
at all a person must now examine those half domesticated groups
that are confined in public parks.

The extravagant slaughter which he chronicles bears little
comparison to the hunts in which others engaged. The cruel and
wanton destruction of the bison takes its place in history with the
more fierce and relentless persecution which the Indians have
suffered. When we read of the innumerable herds of bison which
Parkman saw, we are inclined, however, not to wonder that he
expressed the belief that the extinction of the animal was
impossible. His description of his hunts are fascinating, and will
rouse the wild blood in any boy's nature.

Four days on the Platte, and yet no buffalo! Last year's signs of them
were provokingly abundant; and wood being extremely scarce, we found an
admirable substitute in the _bois de vache_, which burns exactly like
peat, producing no unpleasant effects. The wagons one morning had left
the camp; Shaw and I were already on horseback, but Henry Chatillon
still sat cross-legged by the dead embers of the fire, playing pensively
with the lock of his rifle, while his sturdy Wyandotte pony stood
quietly behind him, looking over his head. At last he got up, patted the
neck of the pony (whom, from an exaggerated appreciation of his merits,
he had christened "Five Hundred Dollar"), and then mounted with a
melancholy air.

"What is it, Henry?"

"Ah, I feel lonesome; I never been here before; but I see away yonder
over the buttes, and down there on the prairie, black--all black with
buffalo!"

In the afternoon he and I left the party in search of an antelope; until
at the distance of a mile or two on the right, the tall white wagons and
the little black specks of horsemen were just visible, so slowly
advancing that they seemed motionless; and far on the left rose the
broken line of scorched, desolate sand-hills. The vast plain waved with
tall rank grass that swept our horses' bellies; it swayed to and fro in
billows with the light breeze, and far and near antelope and wolves were
moving through it, the hairy backs of the latter alternately appearing
and disappearing as they bounded awkwardly along: while the antelope,
with the simple curiosity peculiar to them, would often approach us
closely, their little horns and white throats just visible above the
grass tops, as they gazed eagerly at us with their round black eyes.

I