It does not appear from our actual observation of 21 years, and pretty correct information of as many more of still an earlier date, that the principal animals have suffered diminution in the district of which we treat, viz., from the Sioux country to the Blackfoot, inclusive. How numerous they were in former years we do not know, but understand from old Indians that more buffalo have been seen in late years than were noticed 50 or 60 years since. It may be that the range of these animals is becoming more limited from the pressure of emigration westward. Yet this range is very extensive, reaching from the Platte to the Saskatchewan and from Red River to the Rocky Mountains, through all which immense district buffalo are found in great numbers. Out of this question appears to us to arise another, viz., Is not the decrease of the Indians from diseases communicated to them through white immigration and commerce, thereby reducing the number of hunters, equivalent to increasing the number of buffalo? And does not the remnant of the Indians at this time require fewer animals to feed, clothe, and provide all their necessaries, than the multitudes before commerce was established with them? We think this view merits consideration. If the buffaloes diminish, so do the Indians, and the diminution is not felt. The manner in which they hunted before firearms were introduced (by driving the buffaloes into pens) was infinitely more destructive than at present. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were necessarily killed when a camp of a few Indians was stationed and when a small number would have sufficed. That commerce stimulates them to hunt is true, and a great many buffaloes are annually destroyed expressly for the hides. Yet even this destruction is limited. An Indian’s family can only dress a certain number of hides during the hunting season. The hides in their raw state are of no value, and not traded, and can not be packed and carried when they move, which they are obliged to do in the spring; therefore no more are killed than the Indians can handle. Besides, there are but four or five months when the hair or fur of any animal is seasonable or merchantable and the rest of the year only enough are killed for meat, clothing, and lodges for their families. As far as we can be allowed to express an opinion, would say that the Indians by diseases brought about by commerce, and of late years by white immigration, will diminish and perhaps be destroyed as formidable bodies long before their game. The loss of Indians from smallpox, cholera, measles, scarlet fever, venereal fluxes, etc., within our own recollection can not be estimated at less than 15,000 to 20,000, without taking into consideration the consequent loss of propagation.