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THE AMEEICAN BISOXS. 



213 



buffaloes at different seasons changed their range. When the weather was 

 too warm to allow of the shipment of the meat to Eastern cities^ they killed 

 the creatures for their hides, each hunter in this way destroying hundreds in 

 the course of a few months, though getting hardly enough for them to pay 

 his expenses. A few of the more enterprising preserved a portion of the 

 meat by salting and smoking it. As no skins can be taken from those from 

 which the quarters are taken, an animal is thus sacrificed for each hide taken 



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and for each saddle saved. 



The life of a buffalo-hunter is one of hardship and exposure, and yet one 



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of remarkable fascination to those who have ever engaged in such pursuits. 

 In winter, owing to sudden changes of temperature, the hunter is often in 

 o-reat dan<^''er, since he is liable to be overtaken by storms and extreme cold 



when far out on the prairie, many miles from any means of protection. The 

 early part of the winter of 1871-72 was one of remarkable severity in the 

 West, even as far south as the plains of Northern Kansas, where in Decem- 

 bcr, 1871, several hunters perished from the cold, and many others were 

 maimed from having been frost-bitten, some of whom narrowly escaped with 



their lives. Within the winter range of the northern herds of the Kansas 

 buffaloes, a lone tree here and there, at the head of some ravine, usually 

 forms the hunter's sole dependence for firewood. His own improvidence, 

 however, often deprives him of many comforts, as well as a considerable 

 degree of security, which a little trouble and care would secure to him. 



The life of a hunter seems always to tend more or less to barbarism, but 

 especially is this the case with the buffalo-hunter. The "buffalo rangers" 

 of the Red River Settlements are described by Ross, Hind, and others, as 

 speedily becoming unfitted for agricultural or other civilized pursuits. Im- 

 provident and unthrifty in their habits, they riot in plenty during a part of the 

 year, and again verge upon starvation before the arrival of their annual hunt- 

 ing season. The buffalo-hunter of the Plains contrasts unfavorably in many 

 respects with his Rocky Mountain brother. With the less degree of skill 

 required in the chase of the stupid, unwieldy bison, as compared with th 

 tact and caution required in the successful pursuit of the watchful prong- 

 horn, the timid deer, the elk, or the bighorn, there is a corresponding lack 

 of thrift and energy on the part of the hunter. In place of the buckskin 

 suit of the Rocky Mountain hunter, the buffalo-hunter goes clad in a coarse 

 dress of canvas, stiffened with blood and grease. His hair often goes uncut 

 and uncombed for months together, and his hands are frequently unwashed 





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