72 STORIES OF BIRDS AND BEASTS 



traded for whiskey, the skins too of cows and their 

 young. 



" Last of all came the railroads, bringing the white 

 hunter with his deadly aim into the last retreat of the 

 herds. These three acts will show you the living, the 

 hunting, and the butchering of the Buffalo. 



"At first the Buffaloes ranged over all parts of North 

 America where they could find suitable pasture. See, 

 I have made lines on the map to show you how it was 

 found in two-thirds of what are now the United States, 

 living in western prairies, forest-park land, the plains, 

 and far up on mountain sides, being found in the North- 

 west up to the land of snow. Buffaloes, as you know, 

 are cud-chewers and, of course, grass-eaters, though 

 when pushed to it they will eat sage brush, and for this 

 reason they were obliged to move about during the 

 year more than any other fourfoots, except one kind 

 of deer ; those in the south going north as summer 

 dried the grass, and the northerly herds leaving their 

 summer pasture before heavy snow falls. Buffaloes 

 usually moved several hundred miles south as winter 

 came on, and in these annual migrations great numbers 

 lost their lives ; for often the vast herds would make 

 this journey on the full run, stampeding, it is called. 

 Pushing blindly along, masses of them fell into quick- 

 sand and over cliffs, or broke through river and lake 

 ice." 



" What made them stampede ? Was not that very 

 stupid of them ? " said Nat. 



" Yes, but like most animals who live in flocks or 

 herds, and people who live in thick communities, they 

 were both curious and stupid what one did they all 



