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THE AMERICA]^ BISONS. 



191 



In respect to the recent destruction of the buffalo north of the United 

 States, Mr. J. W. Taylor, United States Consul at Winnq^eg, B. N. A., whose 

 valuable communication on the buffalo has been previously quoted informs 

 me that about eighteen .thousand robes were sent to the Minnesota market 

 from the Saskatchewan district alone during the year endino- September 

 30, 1872, while as many more were either consumed in the country or sent 

 to Europe by the way of York Factory, or about forty thousand in all. By 

 far the larger part of the buffaloes killed in the Saskatchewan district, how- 

 ever, are converted into pemmican and dried meat, and, being killed in 

 summer, do not enter at all into the above statement made by Mr. Taylor. 

 From these data it is evident that the destruction of the buffalo in the Sas- 

 katchewan region in 1872 must have amounted to considerably more than a 

 million, and these mainly cows. 



In forming a general estimate of the annual destruction of the buifalo in 

 recent years, it is necessary to add to the large sums already given the large 

 number killed by the different Indian tribes still residing in or near the 

 ranges of the two herds, as well as the thousands killed for frontier con- 



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sumption, and the many thousands more of which no use is made. Even 

 . approximate data for the last-named elements of the problem of course do 

 not exist, but the total killed between 1870 and 1875 cannot have been less 

 than about two and a half millions annually. The effect of this destruction 

 upon the already terribly thinned herds has been most marked, and if con- 

 tinued at a proportional rate will unquestionably in a few years exterminate 

 the race. 



2. 



Peoducts of the Buffalo. 



The flesh of the buffalo is, of course, its most important product, either to 

 the white man or the Indian. It has not only always formed a large part 

 of the food of the Indian tribes living within its range, but has also proved 



7 





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less important to the whites during their first exploration of the 

 country it inhabited. The various military and other surveys of the great 

 central j)lateau of the continent, as well as the numerous private expedi- 

 tions to the same region, could have been accomplished only at greatly 

 increased expense and privation had not the buffalo supphed to the per- 

 sons engaged in these enterprises a never-feihng and ready means of sub- 

 sistence. 



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