Ranching in the Bad Lands 7 



only remaining great hunting-grounds, and toward 

 the end of the last decade all of the northern plains 

 tribes went on the war-path in a final desperate ef- 

 fort to preserve them. After bloody fighting and 

 protracted campaigns they were defeated, and the 

 country thrown open to the whites, while the build- 

 ing of the Northern Pacific Railroad gave immigra- 

 tion an immense impetus. There were great quan- 

 tities of game, especially buffalo, and the hunters 

 who thronged in to pursue the huge herds of the 

 latter were the rough forerunners of civilization. 

 No longer dreading the Indians, and having the 

 railway on which to transport the robes, they fol- 

 lowed the buffalo in season and out, until in 1883 

 the herds were practically destroyed. But mean- 

 while the cattlemen formed the vanguard of the 

 white settlers. Already the hardy Southern stockmen 

 had pressed up with their wild-looking herds to the 

 very border of the dangerous land, and even into it, 

 trusting to luck and their own prowess for their 

 safety; and the instant the danger was even par- 

 tially removed, their cattle swarmed northward 

 along the streams. Some Eastern men, seeing the 

 extent of the grazing country, brought stock out 

 by the railroad, and the short-horned beasts became 

 almost as plentiful as the wilder-looking Southern 

 steers. At the present time, indeed, the cattle of 

 these northern ranges show more short-horned than 

 long-horned blood. 



Cattle-raising on the plains, as now carried on, 

 started in Texas, where the Americans had learned 



