284 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



when a small tin cup full of liquor was the regular price 

 for a pony or a robe. As the orgies of the savages grew 

 more frantic, and as their drunkenness deepened, the watch- 

 ful trader, becoming a cunning workman in the cause of 

 temperance, slyly inserted first one, then two, and finally 

 three of his fingers into the little cap while measuring out 

 the liquor; and the potations of the stupid Indians grew 

 less in quantity as their wealth decreased. Finally, after 

 having stripped the camp of its last robe — often the last 

 covering of the bed of the Indian mother and her children 

 — the greedy trader, urged to speed by the fear of vengeful 

 pursuit, hurried night and day toward civilization, eager 

 to place as great a distance as possible between his load of 

 ill-gotten spoil and its legitimate owners before the stupor 

 of their intoxication had subsided, and they had become 

 fully aware of the depth of the degradation into which 

 they were plunged by this unholy trade. May the wealth 

 acquired by this worse than infamous traffic perish with 

 those who accumulated it! 



Aside from this nefarious traffic, the legitimate trade of 

 the regular fur companies had grown to colossal propor- 

 tions. The amazing number of Buffaloes slaughtered by 

 the Indians of the plains is indicated in the following 

 report of a partner in the American Fur Company (Mr. 

 Sanford), made to Lieutenant Fremont, in 1843, and which 

 is worthy of the most careful study: 



The total number of robes annually traded by ourselves and others will not 

 be found to differ much from the following: American Fur Company, 70,000; 

 Hudson's Bay Company, 10,000; all other companies, probably, 10,000; making 

 a total of 90,000 robes as an average annual return for the last eight or ten 

 years. 



In the Northwest, the Hudson's Bay Company purchase from the Indians 

 but a very small number, their only 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 Buffaloes annually killed throughout the extensive region 

 inhabited by the Comanches and other kindred tribes, no robes whatever are 

 furnished for trade. During only four months of the year (from November 

 until March) are the skins good for dressing; those obtained in the remaining 

 eight months are valueless to traders, and the hides of bulls are never taken off 



