Mr. Cox said he had been told by old hunters that it was impossible to tell the sex of a running buffalo; and he also stated that the bill gave preference to the Indians.

Mr. Fort said the object was to prevent early extermination; that thousands were annually slaughtered for skins alone, and thousands for their tongues alone; that perhaps hundreds of thousands are killed every year in utter wantonness, with no object for such destruction.  He had been told that the sexes could be distinguished while they were running.[73]

[Note 73:  I know of no greater affront that could be offered to the intelligence of a genuine buffalo-hunter than to accuse him of not knowing enough to tell the sex of a buffalo “on the run” by its form alone.—­W.  T. H.]

This bill does not prohibit any person joining in a reasonable chase and hunt of the buffalo.

Said Mr. Fort, “So far as I am advised, gentlemen upon this floor representing all the Territories are favorable to the passage of this bill.”

Mr. Cox wanted the clause excepting the Indians from the operations of the bill stricken out, and stated that the Secretary of the Interior had already said to the House that the civilization of the Indian was Impossible while the buffalo remained on the plains.

The Clerk read for Mr. McCormick the following extract from the New Mexican, a paper published in Santa Fé: 

The buffalo slaughter, which has been going on the past few years on the plains, and which increases every year, is wantonly wicked, and should be stopped by the most stringent enactments and most vigilant enforcements of the law.  Killing these noble animals for their hides simply, or to gratify the pleasure of some Russian duke or English lord, is a species of vandalism which can not too quickly be checked.  United States surveying parties report that there are two thousand hunters on the plains killing these animals for their hides.  One party of sixteen hunters report having killed twenty-eight thousand buffaloes during the past summer.  It seems to us there is quite as much reason why the Government should protect the buffaloes as the Indians.

Mr. McCormick considered the subject important, and had not a doubt of the fearful slaughter.  He read the following extract from a letter that he had received from General Hazen: 

I know a man who killed with his own hand ninety-nine buffaloes in one day, without taking a pound of the meat.  The buffalo for food has an intrinsic value about equal to an average Texas beef, or say $20.  There are probably not less than a million of these animals on the western plains.  If the Government owned a herd of a million oxen they would at least take steps to prevent this wanton slaughter.  The railroads have made the buffalo so accessible as to present a case not dissimilar.

He agreed with Mr. Cox that some features of the bill would probably be impracticable, and moved to amend it.  He did not believe any bill would entirely accomplish the purpose, but he desired that such wanton slaughter should be stopped.