A ofittine sic c uagnanist 
THE AMERICAN BISONS. 199 
this to wild breeding; in other respects, they do not seem difficult to tame; 
a 4 or 5 year old Bull and Cow have been seen that were extremely gentle: 
“3° Were the Illinois country sufficiently well settled to admit of the 
people inclosing a great number of these animals in parks, some of them 
might be salted, a business susceptible of being extended very considerably, 
without Illinois possessing a large population for that purpose. This trade 
would perhaps enable us to dispense with Irish beef for Martinico, and even 
to compete with the English, and at a lower rate, for the supply of the 
Spanish Colonies.” * 
It appears that in 1821 a joimt-stock company was formed in the 
British Red River Colony, under the high-sounding title of the “Buffalo 
Wool Company,” whose express objects were “to provide a substitute for 
wool, which substitute was to be the wool of the wild buffalo, which was to 
‘be collected in the Plains, and manufactured both for the use of the colonists 
and for export, and to establish a tannery for manufacturing the buffalo-hides 
for domestic purposes.” A capital of two thousand pounds sterling was 
raised, and orders sent to England for machinery, implements, dyes, and 
skilled workmen. Two immigrations of operatives arrived, including “ cur- 
riers, skinners, sorters, wool-dressers, teasers, and bark manufacturers, of all 
grades, ages, and sexes.” For a time money was plenty, wages high, and the 
prospects golden. But events proved the scheme to be grounded on miseal- 
culation, which, with the extravagant expenditure indulged in by the com- 
pany, soon brought grief, not only to all the participants, but in a measure 
affected the fortunes of the whole colony. It was found that “the wool and 
the hides were not to be got, as stated, for the picking up; the hides soon 
costing the company 6s. each, and the wool 1s.6d. per pound.” But, accord- 
ing to Ross (from whom these statements are compiled), “the bottle and 
the glass” were too freely circulated ; spirits were imported by the hogshead, 
and scenes of disorder and intemperance followed; both officials and opera- 
tives were “ wallowing in intemperance”; the hides were allowed to rot, the 
wool to spoil, and the tannery proved a complete failure. The company, 
besides expending their capital, found themselves irretrievably in debt to 
their bankers, and bankruptcy followed. “A few samples of cloth,” con- 
tinues Mr. Ross, “had, indeed, been made and sent home; but that which 
cost two pounds ten shillings per yard in Red River would only fetch four 
* Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York; procured in Holland, Eng- 
land, and France, by John Romeyn Brodhead, Esq., etc., Vol. X, pp. 230, 231. 
