118 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
unrestrained desire to kill. No part of our wild life can 
withstand the destructive influence of men armed with 
modern guns; man and gun spell their doom, and the only 
salvation for any species is the restriction by law of the 
number that may be killed. These considerations, however, 
had no import in the early days of the buffalo. It was 
faced with men armed with powerful firearms, who killed 
without any regard for the future, and there was a complete 
absence of any restrictions on the part of all the governments 
concerned. The Indians, who had always regarded the 
buffalo as the source of their meat supply, had their point 
of view entirely changed in so far as the number of animals 
to be killed was concerned. Their passion for killing was 
inflamed by the example of the white hunters, with serious 
economic results when their source of meat was wiped out. 
Various methods of slaughter were followed. The ex- 
traordinary stupidity of the animals made them an easy 
prey for the still-hunters. Still-hunting (Plate XI) was 
conducted on business lines, and was highly profitable when 
over a hundred animals could be killed from one stand, and 
the robes were worth two dollars and four dollars each. The 
practice of hunting on horseback provided an exciting sport, 
and when the hunters—white, half-breed, and Indians—went 
out in armies the results were disastrous to the herds, par- 
ticularly as the cows were especially chosen, owing to the 
superior value of their skins. A favourite method employed 
by the Indians was that of impounding or killing the animals 
in pens, into which they were driven. This method was 
commonly practised by the Plains Crees in the South Sas- 
katchewan country. The terrible scenes that attended these 
wholesale slaughters of the herds are beyond description. 
Other methods of slaughter on a large scale were surround- 
ing, decoying, and driving the animals, and all tended 
towards the same end—complete extermination of the herds. 
As the animals became more scarce the half-breeds and In- 
