Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 



and the enormous abundance of game animals, the 

 destruction was beyond belief. 



At certain points near army posts, efforts were made 

 by officers to drive skin hunters away, and often with 

 success, and the general sentiment of the better class 

 of frontiersmen was against the butchery. , The game 

 laws of the territory existed only on the statute books, 

 and people generally were not sufficiently interested 

 to make any effort to have the laws enforced. They 

 were not supported by public sentiment. The result 

 of this slaughter was that the game passed out of 

 existence. 



22. Ft. Benton. This famous trading post was 

 built by the American Fur Co. about 1846. It had 

 predecessors in the neighborhood, Ft. Mackenzie and 

 Ft. Brule. It was long the most famous of the fur 

 trading posts, partly because it stood at the head of 

 the navigation on the Missouri River. Fort Benton, 

 like others of the sod and adobe forts, finally went to 

 ruin under the weather, and little of it now remains. 



1877. 



23, Nez Perce War. Much literature has been 

 printed on this subject, but a good brief account, so 

 far as the Yellowstone Park is concerned, will be 

 found in General Chittenden's book. See Note 28. 



24. While perhaps the killing of the Nez Perces 

 women may have had something to do with the 

 changed attitude of the warriors of the tribe, it is 



269 



