rela ferent oii 
THE AMERICAN BISONS. 209 
the herd took flight, and horse and rider are presently seen bursting in 
among them; shots are heard, and all is smoke, dust, and hurry. The fattest 
are first singled out for slaughter, and in less time than we have occupied 
- with the description a thousand carcasses strew the plain. Those who have 
seen a squadron of horse dart into battle may imagine the scene, which we 
have no skill to depict. The earth seemed to tremble when the horses 
started; but when the animals fled it was like the shock of an earthquake. 
The air was darkened; the rapid firing, at first distinct, soon became more 
and more faint, and at last died away in the distance. Two hours, and all 
was over; but several hours elapsed before the result was known, or the 
hunters reassembled; . . . . m the evening no less than thirteen hundred 
and seventy-five tongues were brought into camp.” * 
The dexterity in loading and firing on horseback while at full speed exhib- 
ited by these halfbreeds, as well as their tact in recognizing their game on 
the field of slaughter after the killing is over, is represented as surprising. 
Formerly, when hunting with: the old flint-lock musket, says Mr. Taylor,t 
they would drop a charge of powder into the palm of the hand, thence into 
the muzzle of the gun, following it with a bullet from a stock carried in the 
mouth, firing as often as this operation could be repeated. The use of 
modern breech-loading arms, however, long since rendered this process need- 
less. They seldom leave a mark to designate their own animals, though 
some do so, leaving first a cap, then a sash, and so on, until, as often hap- 
pens, these means of designation fail, five or six to a dozen buffaloes being 
generally killed in a single run by a good hunter. Riding in clouds of dust 
and smoke, in company with hundreds of other horsemen, crossing and re- 
crossing each other’s tracks, among dead and wounded as well as among the 
terrified and fleeing animals, it certainly evinces, on the part of the hunter, 
no small degree of discriminating power, after an hour of such wild, bewilder- 
ing confusion, to tell not only the number of animals he has killed, but also 
the exact spot where each lies. Yet this, we are told, is constantly done. 
According to Simpson, the Red River hunter, in winter, when the snow 
was too deep to pursue them on horseback, approached the buffaloes by 
crawling to them on the snow, disguised sometimes by a close dun-colored 
cap, furnished with upright ears, to give him the appearance of a wolf, which, 
through constant association, the buffaloes regard without dread. Towards 
” 
é 
* Red River Settlement, pp. 255 — 557. 
+ MS. Notes, as previously cited. 
