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THE AMEEICAN" EISONS. 



faloes now so wholly within their power. Soon rendered frantic with rage 

 and fear^ the stronger toss, crush, or impale the w^eaker. In this dreadful 

 scene of confusion and slaughter, says Hind, " the shouts and screams of the 

 excited Indians rise above the roaring of the bulls, the bellowing of the cows, 



and the piteous moaning of the calves. The dying struggles of so many 



huge and powerful animals crowded together create a revolting and terrible 

 scene, dreadful from the excess of its cruelty and waste of life, but wdth occa- 

 sional displays of wonderful brute strength and rage; while man, in his sav- 

 age, untutored, and heathen state, shows, both in deed and exj)ression, how 

 little he is superior to the noble beasts he so wantonly and cruelly destroys." 



" The conflict over," says Hind, ^^ animals of every age, from old bulls to 

 young calves of three months old, were huddled together, in all the forced 

 attitudes of violent death. Some lay on their backs, with eyes starting from 

 their heads, and tongues thrust out through clotted gore, and others w^ere 

 impaled on the horns of the old and strong bulls. Others again, which had 

 been tossed, were lying with broken backs, two or three deep. One little 

 calf hung, suspended on the horns of a bull, which had impaled it in the" wild 

 race round and round the pound." Of the two hundred to two hundred and 

 fifty animals usually killed at each impounding, only the best and fattest are 

 utilized, the flesh- of these being removed and dried in the sun. 



Sometimes the attempts at impounding are unsuccessful, an instance of 

 wdiich is mentioned by Mr. Hind. After the pound was nearly full, an old 

 bull espied a narrow crevice which had not been closed by the robes of those 

 on the outside, whose duty it was to conceal every orifice; making a dash at 

 this, he forced himself through, breaking the fence, when the whole herd ran 

 helter-skelter through the gap, a few only being speared or shot through 

 wdtli arrows in their attempt to escape. ; 



Simpson says that in January, 1840, the buifalocs were so numerous about 

 Carlton House as to render it necessary to remove the haystacks into the 

 Fort to prevent their being devoured by the buffaloes. In the vicinity of 

 the Fort were three camps of Assinniboines, each of w^iom had its buffiilo 

 pound, into which they drove forty or fifty animals daily ; " and I afterwords 

 learned," says Simpson, ^^that in other places these pounds were actually 

 formed of piled-up carcasses. 



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Audubon states that the Gros Ventres, Blackfeet, and Assinniboines often 

 also took the buffalo in large pens in a similar manner. Two converging 



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* Simpson (Thomas), Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America, etc., pp. 402^ 404. 



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