THE AMERICAN. BISONS. 197 
number of buffaloes resulting from this reckless and almost unremunerative 
slaughter, the herds are harassed and kept wandering from place to place 
the whole year, which of course greatly interferes with their multiplication. 
It should be said, however, that this destruction of the buffalo in summer for 
its hide has not generally met with the approval of the better class of hunt- 
ers, among whom there has been at times a strong feeling against it, it beg 
chiefly carried on by those who were too unthrifty to seek employment in 
other pursuits during the time when buffalo-hunting for the Eastern market 
was not in season. Sometimes the more intelligent and influential portion 
of the hunters would warn the transgressors to desist from their unseason- 
able slaughter or immediately leave the country, on pain of summary treat- 
ment,— an admonition which was generally so effective as not to require a 
repetition. 
The hide of the buffalo makes but an inferior, porous kind of leather, 
useful, however, for certain purposes, such as covers for carriage-tops, belt- 
leather, etc. The average net price realized by the hunter is generally less 
than a dollar per hide, usually from fifty to seventy-five cents, while it occa- 
sionally happens that in shipping a car-load of hides to the Eastern market 
the hunter is left in debt to the broker, whose deduction for freight and 
charges for commission exceed the price allowed for the skins. 
The coarse wool of the buffalo early attracted attention as an article of 
commercial value. The early Jesuit explorers stated that the Indians were 
accustomed to weave it into ornamental or useful fabrics, and usually enu- 
merated it as one of the products of the buffalo that would render the animal 
valuable under domestication. Charlevoix says that the wives of the Illinois 
Indians were accustomed to spin the buffalo-wool and make it as fine as that 
of English sheep.* Marquette says, referring to the same tribes, “they pre- 
sented us with belts, garters, and other articles made of the hair of bears 
and buffaloes”; and adds that “their chiefs are distinguished from the 
soldiers by red scarfs made of the hair of buffaloes, curiously wrought.” + 
Father Marest also enumerates among the employments of the Ilinois 
Indians the making of “ bands, belts, and sacks” from the hair of the buf 
* Charlevoix says, in describing the Illinois Indians: “Their Wives are sufficiently dexterous: They 
spin the Buffalo’s Wool, and make it as fine as that of English Sheep. Sometimes one would even take it 
for Silk. They make Stuffs of it, which they dye black, yellow, and a dark red. They make Gowns of it, 
which they sew with the Thread made of the Sinews of Roe-Bucks.” — Leiters, ete., English ed., p. 298. 
+ Hist. Coll. Louisiana, Vol. II, p. 288. 
