In Buffalo Days 



great deal of nutriment in very small bulk. 

 Robes were used for bedding, and in winter 

 buffalo moccasins were worn for warmth, the 

 hair side within. Coats of buffalo-skin are 

 the warmest covering known, the only gar- 

 ment which will present an effective barrier 

 to the bitter blasts that sweep over the plains 

 of the Northwest. 



Perhaps as useful to early travelers as any 

 product of the buffalo, was the " buffalo chip," 

 or dried dung. This, being composed of 

 comminuted woody fiber of the grass, made 

 an excellent fuel, and in many parts of the 

 treeless plains was the only substance which 

 could be used to cook with. 



The dismal story of the extermination of 

 the buffalo for its hides has been so often 

 told, that I may be spared the sickening de- 

 tails of the butchery which was carried on 

 from the Mexican to the British boundary 

 line in the struggle to obtain a few dollars by 

 a most ignoble means. As soon as railroads 

 penetrated the buffalo country, a market was 

 opened for the hides. Men too lazy to work 

 were not too lazy to hunt, and a good hunter 

 could kill in the early days from thirty to 



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