282 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



natural pasture-land — the true home and breeding 

 ground of the American bison, commonly called 

 the buffalo. Formerly a vast herd of buffalo, 

 numbering many millions, wandered through the 

 continent, their range extending from as high as 

 60° north down to the southern parts of Texas. 

 In winter they moved towards the south, migrating 

 again northward with summer-time. 



This vast herd is now entirely broken up, and 

 buffalo are disappearing out of the land. All the 

 Indians on the plains subsist by means of them, 

 living on their flesh, and making houses of their 

 skins. Besides the thousands killed by Indians 

 for food and robes, incredible numbers are slain 

 every year by white hunters for the hides and 

 horns. Owing to this indiscriminate slaughter, 

 and to the fact that their pastures are cut by 

 railways and intrusive settlements, the herd has 

 become permanently divided into three. One 

 band ranges in British territory about the Saskat- 

 chewan, west of Red River settlement ; the second 

 over the middle western Territories about the 

 Platte and Republican Rivers ; while the third, or 

 southern herd, roams through Texas and the 

 neighbouring States. As these the indigenous 

 cattle of the country disappear, their place is to a 



