202 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
eo. — LHE CHASE. 
An account of the means and methods by which the buffalo has become 
so nearly exterminated forms an interesting chapter in its history, since they 
have varied at different times and at different localities, in accordance with 
the customs of the different Indian tribes, and with i wants and a 
ments of the white man. 
When the Jesuit missionaries first visited the Illinois prairies, it seems to 
have been a general custom with the Indians of the Mississippi Valley to 
hunt the buffalo by the aid of fire, accounts of which have been left us by 
Hennepin, Du Pratz, Charlevoix, and others. Hennepin says: “When the 
Savages discover a ereat Number of those Beasts together, they likewise as- 
semble their whole Tribe to encompass the Bulls, and then set on fire the 
dry Herbs about them, except in some places, which they leave free; and 
therein lay themselves in Ambuscade. ‘The Bulls, seeing the Flame round 
them, run away through those Passages where they see no Fire; and there 
fall into the Hands of the Savages, who by these Means will kill sometimes 
above sixscore in a day.” * : 
Charlevoix’s account .of the Indian method of hunting the buffalo is as 
follows: “In the Southern and Western Parts of Mew France, on both Sides 
the Mississippi, the most famous Hunt is that of the Buffaloe, which is per- 
formed in this Manner: The Hunters range themselves on four Lines, which 
form a great Square, and begin by setting Fire to the Grass and Herbs, which 
are dry and very high: Then as the Fire gets forwards, they advance, closing 
their Lines: The Buffaloes, which are extremely afraid of Fire, keep flying 
from it, and at last find themselves so crouded together that they are gener- 
ally every one killed. They say that a Party seldom returns from hunting 
without killing Fifteen Hundred or Two Thousand. But lest the different 
Companies should hinder each other, they all agree before they set out about 
the Place where they intend to hunt,” ete. ¢ 
Mr. J. G. Shea also alludes to the general custom among the Indians of the 
Upper Mississippi of hunting buffaloes by fire, of which the buffaloes have a 
great dread. Finding it approaching them, “they retire towards the centre 
of the prairie, where, being pressed together in great numbers, the Indians 
* A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, p. 90, London, 1698. 
+ Letters, Goadby’s English Ed., p. 68. 
