that will be somewhere near the truth of the number of buffaloes
actually seen in one day by Colonel Dodge on the Arkansas River during
that memorable drive, and also of the number of head in the entire herd.

According to his recorded observation, the herd extended along the river
for a distance of 25 miles, which was in reality the width of the vast
procession that was moving north, and back from the road as far as the
eye could reach, on both sides. It is making a low estimate to consider
the extent of the visible ground at 1 mile on either side. This gives a
strip of country 2 miles wide by 25 long, or a total of 50 square miles
covered with buffalo, averaging from fifteen to twenty to the acre.[23]
Taking the lesser number, in order to be below the truth rather than
above it, we find that the number actually seen on that day by Colonel
Dodge was in the neighborhood of 480,000, not counting the additional
number taken in at the view from the top of Pawnee Rock, which, if
added, would easily bring the total up to a round half million!

[Note 23: On the plains of Dakota, the Rev. Mr. Belcourt (Schoolcraft's
N. A. Indians, IV, p. 108) once counted two hundred and twenty-eight
buffaloes, a part of a great herd, feeding on a single acre of ground.
This of course was an unusual occurrence with buffaloes not stampeding,
but practically at rest. It is quite possible also that the extent of
the ground may have been underestimated.]

If the advancing multitude had been at all points 50 miles in length (as
it was known to have been in some places at least) by 25 miles in width,
and still averaged fifteen head to the acre of ground, it would have
contained the enormous number of 12,000,000 head. But, judging from the
general principles governing such migrations, it is almost certain that
the moving mass advanced in the shape of a wedge, which would make it