BUFFALOES 



low places. Through this snow the progress of 

 the buffalo was retarded and the Indians sur- 

 rounding them on foot killed vast numbers with 

 little difficulty. 



The great numbers of buffalo that roamed the 

 prairie in '71 were rapidly disappearing under 

 the destructive hands of the relentless robe- 

 hunters and Indians. The few thousand that 

 then remained confined themselves to the 

 prairies of western Kansas, the Indian Territory 

 and northwestern Texas save by chance a lone 

 old bull or a few stragglers that had become 

 separated from the main herds and wandered 

 away through the canons in self-protection as 

 had the little band that were such familiar ob- 

 jects near our claim. 



In six years' time practically all that was left 

 of the great herds was their bones bleached 

 white by the sun and the elements. The deep 

 ruts that were made by them in travelling in 

 single file over the same path and the smooth 

 round depressions made by the animals tearing 

 up the dirt, generally in moist places, and then 

 rolling in the depression afterward to cool the 

 body and rid themselves of insect pests, were 



