hump on its back, which gives it so strange an aspect. It is indeed
frequently killed merely for the sake of this hump, and the tongue and
marrow-bones. Sometimes, also, when parched with thirst, the hunter
kills a buffalo to obtain the water contained within certain honeycombed
cells in its stomach. The buffalo is provided with this reservoir, in
which a large quantity of pure water can be stored, that it may
traverse, without the necessity of drinking, the wide barren plains
where none can be obtained. Vast numbers, without even these objects in
view, are wantonly slaughtered, and the chief part of the flesh utterly
wasted, by the thoughtless Indians of the plain, who have thereby
deprived themselves of their future support. Many tribes depend almost
entirely for their subsistence on the buffalo, of which the flesh is
prepared in several ways. When cut up into long strips, and dried in
the sun till it becomes black and hard, it will keep for a long time.
It is also pounded with the fat of the animal, and converted into
_pemmican_--an especially nutritious food, which, if kept dry, will
continue in good order for several years.

The prairie Indians make use of the hide for many purposes. They scrape
off the hair and tan it, when it serves them for coverings for their
tents. It is also carefully dressed, when it becomes soft and
impervious to water. It is then used for clothing. Some of the tribes
also form their shields from it. The hide is pegged down on the ground,
when it is covered with a kind of glue. In this state it greatly
shrinks and thickens, and becomes sufficiently hard to resist an arrow,
and even to turn aside an ordinary bullet which does not strike
directly.

The buffalo is especially a gregarious animal, and is found in herds of
immense size, many thousands in number. Their dark forms may often be
seen extending over the prairie as far as the eye can reach, a mighty
moving mass of life. Onward they rush, moved by some sudden impulse,
making the ground tremble under their feet, while their course may be
traced by the vast cloud of dust which floats over them as they sweep
across the plain. They are invariably followed by flocks of wolves, who
pounce on any young or sick members of the herd which may be left
behind. They range throughout the whole prairie country, from the
"Fertile Belt," which extends from the Red River settlement to the Rocky
Mountains in British Central America, to M