As was the case in the south, it was the ability of a single hunter to destroy an entire bunch of buffalo in a single day that completely annihilated the remaining thousands of the northern herd before the people of the United States even learned what was going on.  For example, one hunter of my acquaintance, Vic.  Smith, the most famous hunter in Montana, killed one hundred and seven buffaloes in one “stand,” in about one hour’s time, and without shifting his point of attack.  This occurred in the Red Water country, about 100 miles northeast of Miles City, in the winter of 1881-’82.  During the same season another hunter, named “Doc.”  Aughl, killed eighty-five buffaloes at one “stand,” and John Edwards killed seventy-five.  The total number that Smith claims to have killed that season is “about five thousand.”  Where buffaloes were at all plentiful, every man who called himself a hunter was expected to kill between one and two thousand during the hunting season—­from November to February—­and when the buffaloes were to be found it was a comparatively easy thing to do.

During the year 1882 the thousands of bison that still remained alive on the range indicated above, and also marked out on the accompanying map, were distributed over that entire area very generally.  In February of that year a Fort Benton correspondent of Forest and Stream wrote as follows:  “It is truly wonderful how many buffalo are still left.  Thousands of Indians and hundreds of white men depend on them for a living.  At present nearly all the buffalo in Montana are between Milk River and Bear Paw Mountains.  There are only a few small bands between the Missouri and the Yellowstone.”  There were plenty of buffalo on the Upper Marias River in October, 1882.  In November and December there were thousands between the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers.  South of the Northern Pacific Railway the range during the hunting season of 1882-’83 was thus defined by a hunter who has since written out the “Confessions of a Buffalo Butcher” for Forest and Stream (vol. xxiv, p. 489):  “Then [October, 1882] the western limit was defined in a general way by Powder River, and extending eastward well toward the Missouri and south to within 60 or 70 miles of the Black Hills.  It embraces the valleys of all tributaries to Powder River from the east, all of the valleys of Beaver Creek, O’Fallon Creek, and the Little Missouri and Moreau Rivers, and both forks of the Cannon Ball for almost half their length.  This immense territory, lying almost equally in Montana and Dakota, had been occupied during the winters by many thousands of buffaloes from time immemorial, and many of the cows remained during the summer and brought forth their young undisturbed.”

The three hunters composing the party whose record is narrated in the interesting sketch referred to, went out from Miles City on October 23, 1882, due east to the bad lands between the Powder River and O’Fallon Creek, and were on the range all winter.  They found comparatively few buffaloes, and secured only two hundred and eighty-six robes, which they sold at an average price of $2.20 each.  They saved and marketed a large quantity of meat, for which they obtained 3 cents per pound.  They found the whole region in which they hunted fairly infested with Indians and half-breeds, all hunting buffalo.