The King of the Plains 17 



been an industry to collect these bones for 

 the lime that they contain. A single city, 

 which was headquarters for the shipment of 

 these white reminders of the great herd, 

 sent out in a single year the bones of thirty- 

 nine million bison. 



Is it any wonder that to-day there is 

 actually not one bison where there were a 

 million in 1860 ? From being the greatest 

 herd of wild animals that the world prob- 

 ably ever saw, the bison have diminished 

 to a few hundred semi-domesticated buffalo, 

 dwarfed in stature in many cases and piti- 

 ful in their numerical weakness. 



Even in the Yellowstone Park, where the 

 government has made every effort to pro- 

 tect them, the pot hunter and the lawless 

 despoiier have pursued the poor bison. In 

 1890 there were four hundred scattered 

 about the large confines of the park, and 

 now, in spite of the efforts of the govern- 

 ment, there are barely a hundred. 



