PEESENT IIAC^^TS OF THE BISON. 39 



since the time that the Spaniards first introduced the 

 horse into America. The red-skin warrior trains his 

 steed to the chase, as he trains his child to the war- 

 path. The white man, possessing as much courage as 

 the savage, and armed with infinitely more deadly 

 weapons, even surpasses the Indian in the slaughter of 

 this gigantic game, killing ten where the Indian kills 

 one ; so that although we cannot determine the pre- 

 cise time for the extinction of the buffalo, there is no 

 doubt as to his ultimate fate. Thousands of hides 

 are procured every year by the agents of one trading- 

 company. 



The hunter of the present day who desires to chase 

 the bison must leave the cities of the Northern and 

 Eastern States far behind him, and, mounted on a 

 good horse, take his course into the Indian country 

 of the south and west, towards the great rocky chain 

 of mountains which forms the backbone of America. 

 He must banish himself to the prairies. 



It is not less difficult for a writer to describe a 

 prairie in words than it is for a painter to depict one 

 on his canvass. Even the traveller, when he fii'st 

 stands upon the outskirts of one of these immense 

 plains, fails to comprehend its full extent, although 

 his view is confined only b}^ the horizon. But when 

 day after day has been passed in the saddle, and 

 night after night in the plain of waving grass, which 

 extends on every side as far as the eye can reach, 



