In Buffalo Days 
great deal of nutriment in very small bulk. 
Robes were used for bedding, and in winter 
buffalo moccasins were worn for warmth, the 
hair side within. Coats of buffalo-skin are 
the warmest covering known, the only gar- 
ment which will present an effective barrier 
to the bitter blasts that sweep over the plains 
of the Northwest. 
Perhaps as useful to early travelers as any 
product of the buffalo, was the “buffalo chip,” 
or dried dung. This, being composed ony 
comminuted woody fiber of the grass, made 
an excellent fuel, and in many parts of the 
treeless plains was the only substance which 
could be used to cook with. 
The dismal story of the extermination of 
the buffalo for its hides has been so often 
told, that I may be spared the sickening de- 
tails of the butchery which was carried on 
from the Mexican to the British boundary 
line in the struggle to obtain a few dollars by 
a most ignoble means. As soon as railroads 
penetrated the buffalo country, a market was 
opened for the hides. Men too lazy to work 
were not too lazy to hunt, and a good hunter 
could kill in the early days from thirty to 
Ig! 
