244 The Lordly Buffalo. 



own expression, during the whole distance he was never 

 out of sight of a dead buffalo, and never in sight of a live 

 one. 



Thus, though gone, the traces of the buffalo are still 

 thick over the land. Their dried dung is found every- 

 where, and is in many places the only fuel afforded by the 

 plains ; their skulls, which last longer than any other part 

 of the animal, are among the most familiar of objects to the 

 plainsman ; their bones are in many districts so plentiful 

 that it has become a regular industry, followed by hundreds 

 of men (christened " bone hunters " by the frontiersmen), 

 to go out with wagons and collect them in great numbers 

 for the sake of the phosphates they yield ; and Bad Lands, 

 plateaus, and prairies alike, are cut up in all directions 

 by the deep ruts which were formerly buffalo trails. 



These buffalo trails were made by the herds travelling 

 strung out in single file, and invariably taking the same 

 route each time they passed over the same piece of ground. 

 As a consequence, many of the ruts are worn so deeply 

 into the ground that a horseman riding along one strikes 

 his stirrups on the earth. In moving through very broken 

 country they are often good guides ; for though buffalo 

 can go easily over the roughest places, they prefer to travel 

 where it is smooth, and have a remarkable knack at 

 finding out the best passage down a steep ravine, over 

 a broken cliff, or along a divide. In a pass, or, as it is 

 called in the West, " draw," between two feeding grounds, 

 through which the buffalo were fond of going, fifteen or 

 twenty deep trails may be seen ; and often, where the great 

 beasts have travelled in parallel files, two ruts will run side 



