clear,
open woods, and that there were great roads leading to the same, made by
the buffalo, that appeared like wagon roads. The wild cattle had
evidently been attracted thither by the mineral salts in the water. In
the early morning of June 13, 1765, George Croghan, an Indian agent sent
out by William Johnson, of New York, to report to the English government
conditions in the west, coming into view of one of the fine large
meadows bordering on the western banks of the Wabash, saw in the
distance herds of buffalo eating the grass, and describes the land as
filled with buffalo, deer and bears in "great plenty." On the 18th and
19th of the same month, he traveled through what he terms as a
"prodigious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaw's Hunting Ground," and
describes it as well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears, and all
kinds of wild game. He was still in the lower Wabash region. On the 20th
and 21st of June he was traveling north along the Wabash in the vicinity
of the Vermilion river in Vermilion county, and states that game
existed plentifully, and that one could kill in a half hour as much as
was needed. He spoke, evidently, of the large variety of game before
mentioned. The whole of the prairie of Illinois, filled with an abundant
growth of the richest grasses, and all the savannas north of the Wabash
in Indiana, that really constituted an extension of the Grand Prairie,
were particularly suited to the range of the wild herds, and were the
last grounds deserted by them previous to their withdrawal west, and
across the Mississippi.

The economical value of the herds of buffalo to the Indian tribes of the
northwest may be gathered from the uses to which they were afterwards
put by the tribes of the western plains. "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 and bedding; a
hide, dressed without the hair, which made a tepee cover, when a number
were sewn together; boats, when sewn together in a green state, over a
wooden frame work; shields, from the thickest portions, as rawhide;
clothing of many kinds; bags for use in traveling; coffins,