THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 



49a 



The officials of the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific railroads either 

 could not or would not furnish any statistics of the amount of the 

 buffalo product carried by their lines during this period, aud it became 

 necessary to proceed without the actual figures in both cases. Inas 

 much as the Kansas Pacific road cuts through a portion of the buffalo 

 country which was in every respect as thickly inhabited by those aui- 

 mals as the region traversed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, it 

 seemed absolutely certain that the former road hauled out fully as many 

 hides as the latter, if not more, and its quota is so set down. The Union 

 Pacific line handled a much smaller number of buffalo hides than either 

 of its southern rivals, but Colouel Dodge believes that this, "with the 

 smaller roads which touch the buffalo region, taken together, carried 

 about as much as either of the two principal buffalo roads." 



Colonel Dodge considers it reasonably certain that the statistics fur- 

 nished by the Atchison, Topeka aud Santa Fe road represent only one- 

 third of the entire buffalo product, and there certainly appears to be 

 good ground for this belief. It is therefore in order to base further 

 calculations upon these figures. 



According to evidence gathered on the spot by Colonel Dodge during 

 the period of the great slaughter, one hide sent to market in 1872 rep- 

 resented three dead buffaloes, in 1873 two, and in 1874 one hundred skins 

 delivered represented one hundred and twenty-five dead animals. The 

 total slaughter by white men was therefore about as below: 



Year. 



Hides 

 sliipped 

 by A., T. 

 and S. F. 

 railway. 



Hides 

 shipped 

 by other 



roads, 

 same pe- 

 riod (esti- 

 mated). 



Total 



number of 



bufialoes 



utilized. 



Total 



number 



killed and 



wasted. 



Total 

 of buffaloes 

 slaughtered 

 by whites. 



1872 



165, 721 

 251,443 



42, 289 



331, 442 



502, 886 



84, 578 



497, 163 



754, 329 

 126, 867 



994, 326 



754, 329 



31,716 



1, 491, 489 



1, 508, 658 



158, 583 



1873 



1874 



Total 



459, 453 



918, 906 



1, 378, 359 



1, 780, 461 



3, 158, 730 



During all this time the Indians of all tribes within striking distance 

 of the herds killed an immense number of buffaloes every year. In the 

 summer they killed for the hairless hides to use for lodges and for 

 leather, aud in the autumn they slaughtered for robes and meat, but 

 particularly robes, which were all they could offer the white trader in 

 exchange for his goods. They were too lazy aud shiftless to cure much 

 buffalo meat, and besides it was not necessary, for the Government fed 

 them. In regard to the number of buffaloes of the southern herd killed 

 by the Indians, Colonel Dodge arrives at an estimate, as follows: 



"It is much more difficult to estimate the number of dead buffalo 



represented by the Indian-tanned skins or robes sent to market. This 



number varies with the different tribes, and their greater or less contact 



•with the whites, Thus ? the Oheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas of the 



