THE AMEBIC AN BISONS. 197 



number of buffaloes resulting from tills reckless and almost unremunerative 

 slaughter, the herds are harassed and kept wandering from place to place 

 the wbole year, which of course greatly interferes with their multiplication. 

 It should be said, however, tbat this destruction of the buffalo in summer for 

 its bide has not generally met with the approval of the better class of hunt- 

 ers, among whom there has been at times a strong feeling against it, it being 

 chiefly carried on by those who were too unthrifty to seek employment in 

 other pursuits during the time when buffalo-hunting for the Eastern market 

 was not in season. Sometimes the more intelligent and influential portion 

 of the hunters would warn the transgressors to desist from their unseason- 

 able slaughter or immediately leave the country, on pain of summary treat- 

 ment, — an admonition which was generally so effective as not to require a 

 repetition. 



The hide of the buffalo makes but an inferior, porous kind of leather, 

 useful, however, for certain purposes, such as covers for carriage-tops, belt- 

 leather, etc. The average net price realized by the hunter is generally less 

 than a dollar per hide, usually from fifty to seventy-five cents, while it occa- 

 sionally happens that in shipping a car-load of hides to the Eastern market 

 the hunter is left in debt to the broker, whose deduction for freight and 

 charges for commission exceed the price allowed for the skins. 



The coarse wool of the buffalo early attracted attention as an article of 

 commercial value. The early Jesuit explorers stated that the Indians were 

 accustomed to weave it into ornamental or useful fabrics, and usually enu- 

 merated it as one of the products of the buffalo that would render the animal 

 valuable under domestication. Charlevoix says that the wives of the Illinois 

 Indians were accustomed to spin the buffalo-wool and make it as fine as that 

 of English sheep.* Marquette says, referring to the same tribes, " they pre- 

 sented us with belts, garters, and other articles made of the hair of bears 

 and buffaloes " ; and adds that " their chiefs are distinguished from the 

 soldiers by red scarfs made of the hair of buffaloes, curiously wrought." t 

 Father Marest also enumerates among the employments of the Illinois 

 Indians the making of " bands, belts, and sacks " from the hair of the buf- 



* Charlevoix says, in describing the Illinois Indians: " Their Wives are sufficiently dexterous : They 

 spin the Buffalo's Wool, and make it as fine as that of En/jlixli Sheep. Sometimes one would even take it 

 for Silk. They make Stuffs of it, which they dye black, yellow, and a dark red. They make Gowns of it, 

 which they sew with the Thread made of the Sinews of Roe-Bucks." — Letters, etc., English ed., p. 293. 



t Hist. Coll. Louisiana, Vol. II, p. 288. 



