“From the years 1876 and 1880 our line did not extend beyond Bismarck, which was the extreme easterly shipping point for buffalo robes and hides, they being brought down the Missouri River from the north for shipment from that point.  In the years 1876, 1877, 1878, and 1879 there were handled at that point yearly from three to four thousand bales of robes, about one-half the bales containing ten robes and the other half twelve robes each.  During these years practically no hides were shipped.  In 1880 the shipment of hides, dry and untanned, commenced,[68] and in 1881 and 1882 our line was extended west, and the shipping points increased, reaching as far west as Terry and Sully Springs, in Montana.  During these years, 1880, 1881, and 1882, which practically finished the shipments of hides and robes, it is impossible for me to give you any just idea of the number shipped.  The only figures obtainable are those of 1881, when over seventy-five thousand dry and untanned buffalo hides came down the river for shipment from Bismarck.  Some robes were also shipped from this point that year, and a considerable number of robes and hides were shipped from several other shipping points.

[Note 68:  It is to be noted that hairless hides, taken from buffaloes killed in summer, are what the writer refers to.  It was not until 1881, when the end was very near, that hunting buffalo in summer as well as winter became a wholesale business.  What hunting can be more disgraceful than the slaughter of females and young in summer, when skins are almost worthless.]

“The number of pounds of buffalo meat shipped over our line has never cut any figure, the bulk of the meat having been left on the prairie, as not being of sufficient value to pay the cost of transportation.

“The names of the extreme eastern and western stations from which shipments were made are as follows:  In 1880, Bismarck was the only shipping point.  In 1881, Glendive, Bismarck, and Beaver Creek.  In 1882, Terry and Sully Springs, Montana, were the chief shipping points, and in the order named, so far as numbers and amount of shipments are concerned.  Bismarck on the east and Forsyth on the west were the two extremities.

“Up to the year 1880, so long as buffalo were killed only for robes, the bands did not decrease very materially; but beginning with that year, when they were killed for their hides as well, a most indiscriminate slaughter commenced, and from that time on they disappeared very rapidly.  Up to the year 1881 there were two large bands, one south of the Yellowstone and the other north of that river.  In the year mentioned those south of the river were driven north and never returned, having joined the northern band, and become practically extinguished.

“Since 1882 there have, of course, been occasional shipments both of hides and robes, but in such small quantities and so seldom that they cut practically no figure, the bulk of them coming probably from north Missouri points down the river to Bismarck.”