The Bison 113 



ence of the seasons. Steamboats might pass down 

 the Missouri River loaded to the guards with 

 bales of robes, but the vast herds of buffalo showed 

 no diminution. The early white explorers, or 

 trappers, or traders, did not themselves take the 

 trouble to collect buffalo hides ; there were more 

 valuable furs in the country, beaver and otter and 

 bears, which brought better prices, and more 

 important than this did not require to be tanned 

 before they became marketable. For a buffalo 

 skin untanned was never shipped; it was only 

 after some Indian woman had expended on it 

 days of patient labor, that it would bring at the 

 trading post the pitiful reward which the white 

 man gave. 



At last, however, and that was less than forty 

 years ago, a railroad began to push its way out 

 on to the broad plains lying between the Missouri 

 River and the Rockies, and to thrust itself into 

 the very region where the buffalo fed. Over the 

 shining rails of this railroad trains began to pass, 

 carrying passengers ; and among these were many 

 white men eager for gain. These at once saw 

 the possibilities of the buffalo. At first they 

 killed them for meat, but soon the hides began to 

 be shipped also. And other men, learning that 



