The Last Of The Plainsmen

THE LAST 0 THE PLAINSMEN BY ZANE GREY AUTHOR OF EIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE DESERT GOLD. ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR NEW YORK GROSSET DUNLAP PUBLISHERS Made in iKe United State of America COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY All Rights Reserved COPYRIGHT A. C. McCLURG CO. Second Edition, June 3, 1911 Entered at Stationers Hall, London, England PREFATORY NOTE BUFFALO JONES needs no introduction to American sportsmen, but to those of my readers who are unacquainted with him a few words may not be amiss. He was born sixty-two years ago on the Illinois prairie, and he has devoted practically all of his life to the pursuit of wild animals. It has been a pursuit which owed its unflagging energy and indomitable purpose to a singular passion, almost an obsession, to capture alive, not to kill He has caught and broken the will of every well-known wild beast native to western North America. Killing was repulsive to him. He even disliked the sight of a sporting rifle, though for years necessity compelled him to earn his livelihood by supplying the meat of buffalo to the caravans crossing the plains. At last, seeing that the extinction of the noble beasts was inevitable, he smashed his rifle over a wagon wheel and vowed to save the species. For ten years he labored, pur suing, capturing and taming buffalo, for which the West gave him fame, and the name Preserver of the American Bison The preserver of the American bison. 1 Jonaa at the left of the picture. Prefatory Note roJiHirriTrTiirn ........ ...-. As civilization encroached upon the plains Buffalo Jones ranged slowly westward and to-day an isolated desert-bound plateau on the north rim of the Grand Canon ofArizona is his home. There his buffalo browse with the mustang and deer, and are as free as ever they were on the rolling plains. In the spring of 1907 I was the fortunate com panion of the old plainsman on a trip across the desert, and a hunt in that wonderful country of yellow crags, deep canons and giant pines. I want to tell about it. I want to show the color and beauty of those painted cliffs and the long, brown-matted bluebell-dotted aisles in the grand forests I want to give a suggestion of the tang of the dry, cool air and particularly I want to throw a little light upon the life and nature of that strange character and remarkable man, Buffalo Jones. Happily in remembrance a writer can live over his experiences, and see once more the moon blanched silver mountain peaks against the dark blue sky hear the lonely sough of the night wind through the pines feel the dance of wild expectation in the quivering pulse the stir, the thrill, the joy of hard action in perilous moments the mystery of mans yearning for the unattainable. As a boy I read of Boone with a throbbing heart, nnd the silent moccasined, vengeful Wetzel I loved Prefatory Note I pored over the deeds of later men Custer and Carson, those heroes of the plains. And as a man I came to see the wonder, the tragedy of their lives, and to write about them. It has been my destiny what a happy fulfillment of my dreams of border spirit to live for a while in the fast-fading wild environment which produced these great men with the last of the great plainsmen. ZANE GREY CONTENTS I THE ARIZONA DESERT . 3 I THE RANGE ....... 39 III THE LAST HERD ...... 54 IV THE TRATL ....., 75 V OAK SPRING . . 9 . 99 VI THE WHITE MUSTANG ., . . 109VII SNAKE GULCH ...., . 123 VIII NAZA NAZA NAZA . 14 IX THE LAND OF THE MUSK-OS . .152 X SUCCESS AND FAILURE, 168 XI ON TO THE SlWASH ...... 19 XII OLD TOM .., .., . 213 XIII SINGING CLIFFS ., -.., . 234 XIV ALL HEROES BUT ONE, 253 XV JONES ON COUGARS 273 XVI KITTY ...., .. 284 XVII CONCLUSION, ., . . fc 311 THE LAST OF THE PLAINSMEN