BUFFALO. 131 



poured into this country, just suited to their tastes, and 

 finding buffalo very plentiful, and a ready sale for their 

 robes, made such a furious onslaught on the poor beasts, 

 that in a few years scarcely a buffalo could be found in all 

 the wide area south of the Cheyenne and north and east 

 of the North Platte. 



This area, in which the buffalo had thus become 

 practically extinct, joined on the south-west the Laramie 

 Plains country, and there resulted a broad east and west 

 belt from the Missouri to the mountains which contained 

 no buffalo. 



In 1870 the original great buffalo range had become 

 permanently divided into two ranges. The Southern 

 buffalo ranged from Northern Texas to about lat. 41 30'. 

 The Northern ranged from about lat. 43, through what 

 is known as the Powder Eiver country, into the British 

 possessions. Of the numbers and position of the Northern 

 buffalo but little is known. 



We will see what has come to the Southern. 



Their range was as described above, but their most 

 prized feeding ground was the section of country between 

 the South Platte and Arkansas Eivers, watered by the 

 Eepublican, Smoky, Walmit, Pawnee, and other parallel 

 or tributary streams, and generally known as the Eepub- 

 lican country. Hundreds of thousands went south from 

 here each winter, but hundreds of thousands remained, 

 It was the chosen home of the buffalo. 



In 1872 some enemy of the buffalo race discovered 

 that their hides were merchantable, arid could be sold in 

 the market for a goodly sum. The Union Pacific, Kansas 

 Pacific, and Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Eailroads 

 soon swarmed with ' hard cases ' from the East, each 

 excited with the prospect of having a buffalo hunt that 

 would pay. By waggon, on horseback, and a-foot, the 

 pot-hunters poured in, and soon the unfortunate buffalo 

 was without a moment's peace or rest. Though hundreds 

 of thousands of skins were sent to market, they scarcely 



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