20 Introductory 



did not care to do hard work could shoot 

 from forty to seventy-five buffalo per day. 

 He could procure skinners who would 

 work very cheaply, and the railroad did 

 the rest. Shortly after the coming of the 

 Union Pacific to the great plains, the south- 

 ern herd was split by another railroad, and 

 all its favorite feeding-grounds thrown open 

 to the hunters. Then the slaughter began. 

 Buffalo robes were seen piled up at all the 

 stations along the road, like cord-wood, and 

 they were shipped east by carloads. Buffalo 

 bones became as common upon the plains 

 as the bison themselves had been before. 

 It took only about three years for the 

 hordes of hunters and the railroads to 

 slaughter the southern herds. But a few 

 survivors could be found upon the outly- 

 ing deserts of Texas in the late seventies. 



In connection with the slaughter of the 

 southern herd, a very remarkable incident 

 in specialization was noted, which illus- 



