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INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES.

The thickest skins were soaked in water containing wood ashes, which removed the hair. They were then cut in the desired sizes, stretched on forms of various shapes, and allowed to dry. They became as hard as iron, and ready for use as trunks, or "par fleches," as they were called. The dried meat was then pounded to powder between stones, and a layer of the powder, two inches thick, placed in the bottom of the trunk. Over this was poured a layer of melted tallow, and so on, alternately, till the trunk was full. The wdiole was kept hot until the melted tallow had saturated the powder. The mass thus prepared, kept for many years, constituting the principal food of the Indians. It took the place of bread to them. In late years, they pack the beef issued to them by the government in the same way.

When the Indians used arrows, each hunter could identify his own game. With the introduction of firearms this became impossible, and the fruit of the " surround" became common property. After the preparation of the meat, the skins next received attention, the squaws preparing them for different uses, as for saddles, shields, lariats, robes, and tent covers. The preparation of the robe was the crowning work of the squaw. With a small implement, shaped like an adze, she chipped away at the hardened hide to thin it, chopping off a piece each time from the surface, yet never cutting through. To render the hide soft, buffalo brains were rubbed in with a stone. Even after all this work, the squaw would, if the robe was to be worn by her husband, spend many months in ornamenting it with colored quills and grasses.

But the buffalo is practically extinct. In 1872 there was apparently no limit to their number. In 1873, where there had been myriads of buffalo there were myriads of rotting carcasses. How did this come about? Three great railroads had penetrated the West, It became known that a buffalo hide was worth four or five dollars. From all parts of the country hunters came in hundreds and thousands, by rail, in wagons,