This Paradise of Ours 1 29 



were squirrels by the million, and pigeons by the 

 billion, and no end to wild turkeys, partridges, 

 quails, ducks, raccoons, opossums, bear, deer, elk, 

 buffaloes, and the rivers were teeming with fish, I 

 have caught bass in a virgin lake as fast as I could 

 throw in my spoon and lift them out — and this was 

 the condition of all lakes and rivers. My father 

 was a skillful turkey-hunter. I remember one win- 

 ter when we grew so tired of them that my mother 

 asked him not to bring home any more. Others, 

 when they came on the trail of turkey, would pursue 

 them, but the bird, like other hunted animals, keeps 

 a specially sharp lookout backwards. My father 

 went on horseback, and getting the general direction 

 a flock was taking, would ride around, get before 

 them, and wait for them. Buffalo were everywhere. 

 Their trails were like broad wagon-roads. They 

 beat down the young trees and made meadows for 

 themselves in the forests. At the salt-licks they 

 crowded and trampled each other to death. An 

 old hunter said he had known deer to escape the 

 jam by leaping up and running upon the solid mass 

 of buffalo backs. These wild animals were but 

 little shy of man. The Indian was not dangerous 

 to them, with his bow and arrows, except at very 

 close range. Until the white man came, with his 

 iron weapons and his gunpowder, the bear and the 

 panther, the bull elk and moose did not hesitate to 

 attack him — the latter stupid brute has scarcely 

 yet learned that he is no match for a rifleman. The 



