THE AMERICAN BISONS. 185 



it is too late for even this remedy, and notwithstanding the immense herds 

 that are yet to be found, I think it is more than probable that another gen- 

 eration will witness almost the entire extinction of this noble animal." 



During the fifteen years that have passed since this was written, the 

 wolves have in a great measure been exterminated over much of the buffalo 

 range, but something far more fatal to the buffalo than anything then known 

 — the railroad — has penetrated its range, and while the females and the 

 young are still slaughtered with the same recklessness as before, the old bulls 

 have of late been hunted with almost equal eagerness. 



Statistics relating to the Destruction of the Buffalo, based principally on the Trade 

 in Robes. — Fremont, in 1845, published some statistics furnished him by Mr. 

 Sanford, a partner of the American Fur Company, respecting the number of 

 robes annually obtained from the Indians by the different fur companies. 

 The average return for the preceding eight or ten years is given as ninety 

 thousand annually. " In the Northwest," says Mr. Sanford, " the Hudson's 

 Bay Company purchase from the Indians but a very small number — their 

 market being Canada, to which the cost of transportation nearly equals the 

 produce of the furs; and it is only within a very recent period that they 

 have received buffalo robes in trade ; and out of the great number of buffalo 

 annually killed throughout the extensive regions inhabited by the Ca- 

 manches and other kindred tribes [Texas, the Indian Territory, and Kansas] 

 no robes whatever are furnished for trade. During only four months of the 

 year (from November until March) the skins are good for dressing ; those 

 obtained in the remaining eight months being valueless to traders ; and the 

 hides of bulls are never taken off or dressed as robes at any season. Proba- 

 bly not more than one third of the skins are taken from the animals killed, 

 even when they are in good season, the labor of preparing and dressing the 

 robes being very great ; and it is seldom that a lodge trades more than 

 twenty skins in a year. It is during the summer months, and in the early 

 part of autumn, that the greatest number of buffalo are killed, and yet at this 

 time a skin is never taken for the purpose of trade." * 



Besides the number of robes traded by the Indians, as many or a greater 

 number were at this time annually used by the Indians themselves. This 

 would make, at a moderate estimate, the annual number of about two hun- 

 dred thousand robes, which represent, according to the competent authority 

 above cited, only one third of the buffaloes killed during about one third of the 



* Fremont's First and Second Expeditions, p. 145. 



