sweeping westward by leaps and
bounds, and during the latter part of the '60's and early '70's, a
market for a very small percentage of the surplus was established at
Abilene, Ellsworth, and Wichita, being confined almost exclusively to
the state of Kansas. But this outlet, slight as it was, developed the
fact that the transplanted Texas steer, after a winter in the north,
took on flesh like a native, and by being double-wintered became a
marketable beef. It should be understood in this connection that Texas,
owing to climatic conditions, did not mature an animal into marketable
form, ready for the butcher's block. Yet it was an exceptional country
for breeding, the percentage of increase in good years reaching the
phenomenal figures of ninety-five calves to the hundred cows. At this
time all eyes were turned to the new Northwest, which was then looked
upon as the country that would at last afford the proper market.
Railroads were pushing into the domain of the buffalo and Indian; the
rush of emigration was westward, and the Texan was clamoring for an
outlet for his cattle. It was written in the stars that the Indian and
buffalo would have to stand aside.

Philanthropists may deplore the destruction of the American bison, yet
it was inevitable. Possibly it is not commonly known that the general
government had under consideration the sending of its own troops to
destroy the buffalo. Yet it is a fact, for the army in the West fully
realized the futility of subjugating the Indians while they could draw
subsistence from the bison. The well-mounted aborigines hung on the
flanks of the great buffalo herds, migrating with them, spurning all
treaty obligations, and when opportunity offered murdering the advance
guard of civilization with the fiendish atrocity of carnivorous animals.
But while the government hesitated, the hide-hunters and the railroads
solved the problem, and the Indian's base of supplies was destroyed.

Then began the great exodus of Texas cattle. The red men were easily
confined on reservations, and the vacated country in the Northwest
became cattle ranges. The government was in the market for large
quantities of beef with which to feed its army and Indian wards. The
maximum year's drive was reached in 1884, when nearly eight hundred
thousand cattle, in something over three hundred herds, bound for the
new Northwest, crossed Red River, the northern boundary of Texas. Some
slight idea of this exodus can be g