56 The King of the Thundering Herd 



was worn two feet deep into the soil, and 

 where the earth was particularly soft, it was 

 three feet deep. Some old buffalo trails 

 are frequently seen in soft places, where 

 the backs of the buffalo would have just 

 shown above the earth as they traveled. 



Then there were trees, cottonwoods usu- 

 ally, that had been so persistently rubbed 

 against in years gone by that the bark was 

 all worn off, and in some cases the trees 

 were nearly dead from the continual fric- 

 tion. 



If a boulder could be found which stood 

 three or four feet above the ground, that 

 also made a good rubbing-post, and around 

 such stones the ground would be trodden 

 down until a path was made three feet deep. 



One writer tells of the great annoyance 

 that the railroads experienced when they 

 first came into the country, through the 

 continual rubbing of the buffalo upon the 

 telegraph poles. Finally a section boss said 



