On 1/10/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The extinction of the bison was largely the result of an attempt to feed the > men who built the transcontinental railroad.
I have to disagree with you, Paul. Yes, many were slaughtered to feed railway workers. However, the wholesale mass killings commenced after the railways were built. "Sportsmen" were encouraged to take train trips to the West; they did, and shot at the beasts from flatbed cars on the trains. Some were killed for their hides, their bodies left to rot on the plain. Most, however, were simply shot, and left untouched. This slaughter was encouraged for many reasons, including "clearing land" for cattle grazing, and to extinguish the Plains Indians main source of food and force them onto reservations. There were far more bison than there were railway workers - feeding them can't explain the near extinction from millions down to a couple of thousand over the course of a few decades. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
