American Big-Game Hunting 



seventy-five buffalo a day, the hides of which 

 were worth from $1.50 to $4 each. This 

 seemed an easy way to make money, and the 

 market for hides was unhmited. Up to this 

 time the trade in robes had been mainly con- 

 fined to those dressed by the Indians, and 

 these were for the most part taken from 

 cows. The coming of the railroad made 

 hides of all sorts marketable, and even those 

 taken from naked old bulls found a sale at 

 some price. The butchery of buffalo was 

 now something stupendous. Thousands of 

 hunters followed millions of buffalo and de- 

 stroyed them wherever found and at all sea- 

 sons of the year. They pursued them during 

 the day, and at night camped at the watering- 

 places, and built lines of fires along the 

 streams, to drive the buffalo back so that 

 they could not drink. It took less than six 

 years to destroy all the buffalo in Kansas, 

 Nebraska, Indian Territory, and northern 

 Texas. The few that were left of the 

 southern herd retreated to the waterless 

 plains of Texas, and there for a while had a 

 brief respite. Even here the hunters fol- 

 lowed them, but as the animals were few and 



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