446 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887 



to seek them. For that matter, however, it is said that south of the 

 Union Pacific nothing worth the seeking now remains. 



The building of the Northern Pacific Railway made possible the ship- 

 ment of immense quantities of dry bones. Even as late as 1886 over- 

 land travelers saw at many of the stations between Jamestown, Da- 

 kota, and Billings, Montana, immense heaps of bones lying alongside 

 the track awaiting shipment. In 1885 a single firm shipped over 200 

 tons of bones from Miles City. 



The valley of the Missouri River was gleaned by teamsters who gath- 

 ered bones from as far back as 100 miles and hauled them to the river for 

 shipment on the steamers. An operator who had eight wagons in the 

 business informed me that in order to ship bones on the river steamers 

 it was necessary to crush them, and that for crushed bones, shipped in 

 bags, a Michigan fertilizer company paid $18 per ton. Uncrushed 

 bones, shipped by the railway, sold for $12 per ton. 



It is impossible to ascertain the total amount or value of the bone 

 product, but it is certain that it amounted to many thousand tons, and 

 in value must have amounted to some huudreds of thousands of dollars. 

 But for the great number of railroads, river steamers, and sea-going 

 vessels (from Texas ports) engaged in carrying this product, it would 

 have cut an important figure in the commerce of the country, but owing 

 to the many interests between which it was divided it attracted little 

 attention. 



Meat. — The amount of fresh buffalo meat cured and marketed was 

 really very insignificant. So long as it was to be had at all it was so 

 very abundant that it was worth only from 2 to 3 cents per pound in 

 the market, and many reasons combined to render the trade in fresh 

 buffalo meat anything but profitable. Probably not more than one 

 one-thousandth of the buffalo meat that might have been saved and 

 utilized was saved. The buffalo carcasses that were wasted on the 

 great plains every year during the two great periods of slaughter (of 

 the northern and southern herds) would probably have fed to satiety 

 during the entire time more than a million persons. 



As to the quality of buffalo meat, it may be stated in general terms 

 that it differs in no way whatever from domestic beef of the same age 

 produced by the same kind of grass. Perhaps there is no finer grazing 

 ground in the world than Montana, and the beef it produces is certainly 

 entitled to rank with the best. There are many persons who claim to 

 recognize a difference between the taste of buffalo meat and domestic 

 beef; but for my part I do not believe any difference really exists, unless 

 it is that the flesh of the buffalo is a little sweeter and more juicy. As 

 for myself, I feel certain I could not tell the difference between the 

 flesh of a three-year old buffalo and that of a domestic beef of the same 

 age, nor do I believe any one else could, even on a wager. Having 

 once seen a butcher eat an elephant steak in the belief that it was beef 

 from his own shop, and another butcher eat loggerhead turtle steak for 



