156 The Bison 



Catlin and others have described and figured this 

 method of approach, which at the present day is 

 traditional only among the Indians; yet an old 

 friend, who died a few years ago, almost a hun- 

 dred years old, has told me that he had many 

 times killed buffalo in this way, either alone or 

 in company with some Indian friend. 



Indians and half-breeds alike preserved the 

 flesh of the buffalo by drying it. The strips or 

 wide flakes of meat were cut about one-quarter 

 of an inch thick and hung on scaffolds exposed 

 to sun and air. In a day or two the meat was 

 thoroughly dried, when it was bent into proper 

 lengths, and either tied in bundles or done up in 

 parfleches. It was from this dried meat that the 

 well-known pemmican was made. The dried 

 meat was roasted over a fire of coals, and then 

 broken up by pounding with sticks on a hide, or 

 by pounding between two stones. This pulver- 

 ized flesh was mixed with the melted fat of the 

 buffalo, and after the whole mass had been thor- 

 oughly stirred, was packed in sacks made of 

 buffalo skin, which were then sewed up with 

 sinew, and as the mass gradually cooled the sack 

 became hard, and would keep for a very long 

 time. 



