20 
a herd of Bison simj)ly slaugliters them. The weajDon he uses is 
eitlier a revolver, or, for the sake of more rapid firing, a smooth bore, 
flint lock, trade musket. He never pauses, but pours in his shot, 
often at such close quartos that the skin is singed by the flash. He 
enters the chase with his mouth filled with bullets. As fast as a 
shot is discharged he pours into the musket a handful of powder 
from the horn around his neck, a bullet from his mouth is then 
dropped do’^vn the barrel, with a tap of the stock on the saddle, 
and there it adheres long enough to the powder to enable 
him to depress and discharge his weapon into one of the animals 
alongside. Tliis goes on all day if prey is abundant, and in the 
evening the identification of the slain is effected by means of the 
marked bullets, etc. ... If meat is in demand, the carcases are 
stripped, and the process of drjdng and pemmican-making is 
resorted to by the women and children. If not, the liide and 
tongues are alone taken, and tons of valuable food are left to the 
AA olves, or to rot on the prairie. But near lines of the Pacific 
Bailroads, the convenience witli Avhich the ‘robes’ can be 
conveyed to market, has led, within the last five or six years, to air 
even more wholesale slaughter than in the north. . . . According 
to authentic data it seems that in 1872 there passed over the 
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Pe Puiilroad 105,721 buffalo hides. 
In 1873, the number had risen to 251,443, and in addition dried 
meat to the amount of 1,017,000 pounds was dispatched to the 
eastern towns, though it is clear that a vast quantity was allowed 
to go to ruin. Of late years, however, owing to this prodigious 
massacre, the number of liides has greatly decreased, though the 
buffalo-skinners have redoubled their efforts to obtain their 
vanishing prey.” 
Prom another source I learn (‘Standard,’ 13th September, 1879) 
that it is calculated by Mr. AAhn. Blackmore, that in the three 
3- ears, 1872-3-4, no less tlian four-and-a half millions of these 
animals were killed, and that “ three millions of them were 
slaughtered for the sake of their hides alone.” The result of all 
this is that the lied Eiver carts now as often return empty as laden ; 
last year the buffalo season on the Saskatchewan was an utter 
