322 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



States almost all the hunting was done in the wood 

 land; the shots were mostly obtained at short dis 

 tance, and deer and black bear were the largest 

 game; moreover, the pea-rifles were marvelously 

 accurate for close range, and their owners were 

 famed the world over for their skill as marksmen. 

 Thus these rifles had so far proved plenty good 

 enough for the work they had to do, and indeed had 

 done excellent service as military weapons in the fe 

 rocious wars that the men of the border carried on 

 with their Indian neighbors, and even in conflict 

 with more civilized foes, as at the battles of King s 

 Mountain and New Orleans. But when the restless 

 frontiersmen pressed out over the Western plains, 

 they encountered in the grisly a beast of far greater 

 bulk and more savage temper than any of those 

 found in the Eastern woods, and their small-bore 

 rifles were utterly inadequate weapons with which 

 to cope with him. It is small wonder that he was 

 considered by them to be almost invulnerable, and 

 extraordinarily tenacious of life. He would be a 

 most unpleasant antagonist now to a man armed 

 only with a thirty-two calibre rifle, that carried but 

 a single shot and was loaded at the muzzle. A 

 rifle, to be of use in this sport, should carry a ball 

 weighing from half an ounce to an ounce. With 

 the old pea-rifles the shot had to be in the eye or 

 heart; and accidents to the hunter were very com 

 mon. But the introduction of heavy breech-load 

 ing repeaters has greatly lessened the danger, even 

 in the very few and far-off places where the grislies 



