264 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



Thus, though gone, the traces of the buffalo are 

 still thick over the land. Their dried dung is found 

 everywhere, and is in many places the only fuel 

 afforded by the plains ; their skulls, which last long- 

 er 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 frontiers- 

 men), 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 

 traveling 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," be- 

 tween two feeding grounds, through which tfce 

 buffalo were fond of going, fifteen or twenty deep 

 trails may be seen ; and often, where the great beasts 

 have traveled in parallel files, two ruts will run side 



