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208 



THE AMEEICAN BISOXS. 



dreds of animals. In their casual hunts the Indians simply follow the herds 

 on horseback, shooting from the saddle when in full pursuit, using either 

 bows and arrows or the modern fire-arms with great dexterity. 



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Descriptions of the systematic expeditions of the Bed Eiver half-breed 

 hunters have been given with greater or less fulness by McLean, Ross, 

 Hind,^ and others. The distinctive features of these grand hunting expe- 

 ditions are their magnitude, the number of persons engaged in them, and 

 the almost military character of their organization. As previously stated, 

 these expeditions generally numbered from five hundred to upwards of 

 twelve hundred carts, accompanied by from two hundred and fifty to six 

 hundred hunters, nearly twice this number of women and children, besides a 

 draught animal (either a horse or an ox) and a dog to each cart, and riding 

 animals in addition for the hunters. Setting out from Fort Garry, the expe- 

 ditions for many years hunted over the Pembina plains, extending their trips 

 southward and westward over the prairies and plains of the Red Eiver, the 

 Shayenne, and the Coteau de Missouri. The Eed River half-breed hunters 

 have undoubtedly done more to exterminate the buffalo than any other 

 single cause, and have long since wholly extirpated them throughout not 

 only this vast region, but also over the extensive prairies of the Assinniboine, 

 the Qn'appelle, and the lower Saskatchewan. Their method of hunting was 

 for several hundred horsemen armed w4th fire-arms to make a grand simul- 

 taneous rush into the verv midst of the immense herds. An attack that 



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Mr. Ross witnessed he thus describes : " Our array in the field must have 

 been a grand and imposing one to those wdio had never seen the like before. 

 No less than four hundred huntsmen, all mounted, and anxiously waiting for 



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the word SStart!' took up their position in a line at one end of the camp,, 

 while Captain Wilkie, with his spy-glass at his eye, surveyed the buffalo, 

 examined the ground, and issued his orders. At eight o'clock the whole 

 cavalcade broke ground and made for the bufExlo ; first at a slow trot, then 

 at a gallop, and lastly at ftdl speed. Their advance was over a dead level, 



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the plain having no hollow or shelter of any kind to conceal their approach. 

 .... When the horsemen started the cattle might have been a mile and a 

 half ahead; but they had approached to within four or five hundred yards 

 before the bulls curved their tails or pawed the ground. In a moment more 





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* McLean (John), Notes of Twenty-five Years' Service in Ae Hudson's Bay Territory, YoL TI, 

 pp. 297-302; Koss (Alexander), Tlie Eed River Settlement, pp. 255-264 ; Iliad (H. Y.), Canad. Expl. 

 Expedition, Vol. 11, pp. 110, 111, 



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