The King of the Plains 23 



high, just as they had been upon the station 

 platforms along the southern railroads. 



From point to point the poor bison were 

 driven, taking refuge in one fastness after 

 another, only to be hunted out at last and 

 pushed farther on into the wilderness, 

 finally to disappear entirely from the conti- 

 nent where once they had been as the 

 grains of sand upon the seashore. 



One of the last slaughters was perpetrated 

 by the government itself. After General 

 Ouster's wholesale defeat in the battle of 

 the Little Big-horn, the government decided 

 that the only way to subdue the Indian 

 was to destroy his means of subsistence. 

 Accordingly, the bison were followed by the 

 troopers into their last strongholds and 

 while wallowing belly-deep in the snow, 

 were shot down by the thousands. 



Finally a few scattered bands, fragments 

 of the great herds, crossed the borders of 

 the United States into what is now the 



