turbed glory. It was a difficult task for the Government to gather
the last remnants, about 150 to 200 head, to stock Yellowstone Park with
them, and to prevent their complete extinction.

Undoubtedly, the buffalo was the most stupid animal of the prairies. In
small flocks, he eluded the hunter well enough; but in herds of
thousands, he cared not a whit for the shooting at the flanks of his
army. Any Indian or trapper, stationed behind some shrubs or earth hill,
could kill dozens of buffalo without disturbing the herd by the swish of
the arrow, the report of the rifle, or the dying groans of the wounded
animals. A general stampede ensued at times, which often led the herd
into morasses, or the quick-sand of the rivers, where they perished
miserably. The destruction was still greater when the leader of the herd
came upon some yawning abyss. Those behind drove him down into the deep,
and the entire herd followed blindly, only to be dashed to death.

The very stupidity of the bison helped to exterminate the race, where
human agency would have seemed well nigh inadequate.

Among the large game of the continent, the bison was the most important,
and furnished the numerous Indian tribes not only with abundant food,
but other things as well. They covered their tents with the thick skins,
and made saddles, boats, lassoes and shoes from them. Folded up, they
used them as beds, and wore them around their shoulders as a protection
against the winter's cold. Spoons and other utensils for the household
could be made from their hoofs and horns, and their bones were shaped
into all kinds of arms and weapons. The life and existence of the
prairie Indian depended almost entirely upon that of the buffalo. There
is no doubt that the Indians killed many buffaloes, but while the damage
may have been great, there was not much of a reduction noticeable in
their numbers, for the buffalo cow is an enormous breeder.

Conditions were changed, however, when the white man arrived with his
rifle, settled down on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and began to
drive the aborigines of the American continent further and further West.
With this crowding back of the Indians began that also of the buffalo,
and the destruction of the latter was far more rapid than that of the
former.

It was about the middle of the Seventeenth Century when the first
English colonists climbed the summits of the Allegheny Mountains.
Enormous herds of buffalo grazed then i