THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 437 



Utilized represented a cash value of $72,000 added to the wealth of the 

 Red Eiver half-breeds. 



In 1820 there went 540 carts to the buffalo plains; in 1825, 6S0 ; in 

 1830, 820; in 1835, 970; in 1840, 1,210. 



From 1820 to 1825 the average for each year was G10 ; from 1825 to 

 1830, 750; from 1830 to 1835, 895; from 1835 to 1840, 1,090. 



Accepting the statements of eye-witnesses tbat for every buffalo 

 killed two and one-third buffaloes are wasted or eaten on the spot, and 

 tbat every loaded cart represented thirty-nine dead buffaloes which 

 were worth when utilized $5 each, we have the following series of totals: 



From 1820 to 1825 five expeditions, of G10 carts each, killed 118,950 

 buffaloes, worth $594,750. 



From 1825 to 1830 five expeditions, of 750 carts each, killed 140,250 

 buffaloes, worth $731,250. 



From 1830 to 1835 five expeditions, of 895 carts each, killed 174,525 

 buffaloes, worth $872,G25. 



From 1835 to 1840 five expeditions, of 1,090 carts each, killed 212,550 

 buffaloes, worth $1,062,750. 



Total number of buffaloes killed in twenty years,* $052,275; total value 

 of buffaloes killed in twenty years,* $3,201,375; total value of the 

 product utilized* and added to the wealth of the settlements, $978,412. 



The Eskimo has his seal, which yields nearly everything that he re- 

 quires; the Korak of Siberia depends for his very existence upon his 

 reindeer; the Ceylon native has the cocoa-nut palm, which leaves him 

 little else to desire, and the North American Indian had the American 

 bison. If any animal was ever designed by the hand of nature for the 

 express purpose of supplying, at oue stroke, nearly all the wants of an 

 entire race, surely the buffalo was intended for the Indian. 



And right well was this gift of the gods utilized by the children of 

 nature to whom it came. Up to the time when the United States Gov- 

 ernment began to support our "Western Indians by the payment of an- 

 nuities aud furnishing quarterly supplies of food, clothing, blankets, 

 cloth, tents, etc., the buffalo had been the main dependence of more than 

 50,000 Indians who inhabited the buffalo range and its environs. Of 

 the many different uses to which the buffalo and his various parts were 

 put by the red man, the following were the principal ones: 



The body of the buffalo yielded fresh meat, of which thousands of 

 tons were consumed; dried meat, prepared in summer for winter use; 

 pemmican (also prepared in summer), of meat, fat, and berries; tallow, 

 made up into large balls or sacks, and kept in store; marrow, preserved 

 in bladders; and tongues, dried and smoked, and eaten as a delicacy. 



The skin of the buffalo yielded a robe, dressed with the hair on, for 

 clothing aud bedding; a hide, dressed without the hair, which made a 

 teepee cover, when a number were sewn together; boats, when sewn 

 together in a green state, over a wooden framework. Shields, made 



* By the Red River half-breeds only. 



