Hunting at High Altitudes 



place, might be attacked by Indians who, of course, at 

 that time were eager for the guns which all the half- 

 breeds possessed. 



The hunter's horse drew up close to the buffalo, not 

 more than two or three yards from it, and the shot 

 was fired as the gun dropped to the level. The well- 

 trained horse swerved away from the buffalo at the 

 shot, and the man, prepared for the change of direc- 

 tion, at once began to reload. When the chase was 

 over, the hunters returned over the buffalo-strewn 

 prairie to identify the animals that each had killed. 

 This was a matter of long practice, and an outdoor 

 man can well understand how it was done. 



Alex. Ross once asked a hunter how it was possible 

 that each could know his own animal in such a me- 

 lange? He answered, by putting a question remark- 

 able for its appropriate ingenuity, "Suppose," said he, 

 "that four hundred learned persons all wrote words 

 here and there on the same sheet of paper, would not 

 the fact be that each scholar would point out his own 

 hand writing?" It is true that practice makes per- 

 fect, but with all the perfection experience can give, 

 much praise is due to the observation of these people, 

 quarrels being rare among them on such occasions. 



Soon after the hunters had left the camp, the women 

 started out with the carts to bring in the meat. Prob- 

 ably by the time they reached the killing ground, the 

 men had returned and were hard at work skinning 

 and cutting up the meat. The hunters worked back, 

 skinning first the animals that they had last killed and 

 coming the last of all to those first shot down. 



The appearance of these hunters, now finishing up 

 260 



