The buffalo crowded with the few tame cattle round the hayricks and log-stables; the starving deer and antelope gathered in immense bands in sheltered places.

Riding from my ranch to a neighbor's I have, in deep snows, passed through herds of antelope that would barely move fifty or a hundred feet out of my way.] The scanty supply of corn gave out, until there was not enough left to bake into johnny-cakes on the long boards in front of the fire.

[Footnote: _Do._] Even at the Falls, where there were stores for the troops, the price of corn went up nearly fourfold, [Footnote: From fifty dollars (Continental money) a bushel in the fall to one hundred and seventy-five in the spring.] while elsewhere among the stations of the interior it could not be had at any price, and there was an absolute dearth both of salt and of vegetable food, the settlers living for weeks on the flesh of the lean wild game, [Footnote: McAfee MSS.] especially of the buffalo.

[Footnote: Boon's Narrative.] The hunters searched with especial eagerness for the bears in the hollow trees, for they alone among the animals kept fat; and the breast of the wild turkey served for bread.

[Footnote: McAfee MSS.] Nevertheless, even in the midst of this season of cold and famine, the settlers began to take the first steps for the education of their children.