Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 



was made, the buffalo, with tails on end, rushed off 

 in headlong flight. Presently the swiftest horses be- 

 gan to overtake them and to disappear in the dust 

 kicked up by the flying herd. The noise and confus- 

 ion caused by the running animals was astonishing. 

 A thick cloud of dust hung over the scene, the air 

 was full of pebbles and sand kicked up by the hurry- 

 ing feet, shots began to be heard, and presently the 

 prairie was strewn with brown bodies. 



In such a race the men rode their best horses, trained 

 buffalo runners, as experienced as their masters in 

 picking out the best cows, in avoiding the holes and 

 obstacles which lay everywhere on the prairie, in 

 avoiding also the charge of angry animals that they 

 overtook and passed. Really, the experienced rider 

 paid no attention to his horse and merely loaded, fired 

 and reloaded until the chase was over. Practically 

 all these men used muzzleloading flintlock guns. Their 

 balls they carried in their mouths, the powder was in 

 a cowhorn hung under the right arm. They loaded 

 on the run, spat a ball into the muzzle, jarred the gun 

 stock on the saddle or with the hand, threw some 

 priming into the pan, and fired. Accidents were fre- 

 quent. Horses fell or were caught by cows and killed, 

 guns burst, sometimes men were shot. By bursting 

 guns men lost hands, arms and sometimes even lives, 

 and Indian hunters have told me of men falling from 

 their horses in such a way that whipstocks, arrows, 

 bows and even guns were driven through their bodies. 



Besides r?ie dangers of the actual chase there was 

 always a chance that a hunter separated from his own 

 people, working off to one side or in some concealed 



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