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Franklin observes, ' horses cannot be used in approaching 

 them ; but the hunter dismounts at some distance and 

 crawls in the snow towards the herd, pushing his gun 

 before him. If the buffaloes happen to look towards him he 

 stops, and keeps quite motionless, until their eyes are 

 turned in another direction ; by this cautious proceeding a 

 skilful person will get so near as to be able to kill two or 

 three out of the herd. It will easily be imagined this 

 service cannot be very agreeable when the thermometer 

 stands 30 or 40 below zero, as sometimes happens in 

 this country.' 



This chase of the bison is not unattended with danger, 

 ' for,' says Catesby, ' when wounded they are very furious, 

 which cautions the Indians how they attack them in open 

 savannahs, where no trees are to screen them from their 

 fury. Their hoofs, more than their horns, are their offensive 

 weapons, and whatever opposes them is in no small danger 

 of being trampled into the earth.' 



Dr. Richardson, in his ' Fauna Boreali Americani,' ob- 

 serves that the bisons are less wary when they are 

 assembled together in numbers, and that they will then 

 often blindly follow their leaders, regardless of, or trampling 

 down, the hunters posted in their way.' He further states 

 that, though the gait of these animals may appear heavy 

 and awkward, they will have no great difficulty in over- 

 taking the fleetest runner, and gives the following account 

 of the determined violence with which a wounded bison 

 assails its enemy : ' While I resided at Carlton-house,' 

 writes Dr. Richardson, ' an accident of this kind occurred. 

 Mr. Finnan M'Donald, one of the Hudson's Bay Company's 

 clerks, was descending the Saskatchewan in a boat, and 

 one evening, having pitched his tent for the night, he went 

 out in the dusk to look for game. It had become nearly 

 dark when he fired at a bison-bull, which was galloping 

 over a small eminence, and as he was hastening forward to 

 see if his shot had taken effect, the wounded beast made a 

 rush at him. He had the presence of mind to seize the 

 animal by the long hair on its forehead ag it struck him on 

 the side with its horn, and, being a remarkably tall and 

 powerful man, a struggle ensued, which continued until his 

 wrist was severely sprained, and his arm was rendered 

 powerless; he then fell, and after receiving two or three 

 blows became senseless. Shortly afterwards he was found 

 by his companions lying bathed in blood, being gored in 

 several places, and the bison was couched beside him, 

 apparently waiting to renew the attack had he shown any 

 signs of life. Mr. M'Donald recovered from the immediate 

 effects of the injuries he received, but died a few months 

 afterwards. Many other instances might be mentioned of 

 the tenaciousness with which this animal pursues its re- 

 venge ; and I have been told of a hunter having been de- 

 tained for many hours in a tree by an old bull, which had 

 taken its post below to watch him. When it contends with 

 a dog, it strikes violently with its fore-feet, and in that way 

 proves more than a matcli for an English bull-dog.' 



The same writer says, that the favourite Indian method of 

 killing the bison is by riding up to the fattest of the herd on 

 horseback, and shooting it with an arrow ; and he speaks 

 of the imposing spectacle which is afforded when a large 

 party of hunters are engaged in this way on an extensive 

 plain, and of the skill and agility displayed by the young 

 men on such occasions. The horses, it appears, seem to 

 enjoy the sport as much as their riders, and are very active 

 in eluding the shock of the animal, should it turn on its 

 pursuer. It should be remembered, on such occasions, that, 

 when the bison runs, it leans very much first to one side for 

 a short time, and then to the other, and so on alternately. 



Dr. Richardson also confirms Captain Franklin in the 

 assertion, that the most generally practised plan of shooting 

 the bisons is by crawling towards them from to leeward, 

 and that in favourable places great numbers are taken in 

 pounds. 



Though the risk of the chase be considerable, the reward 

 is great; for there are few animals that minister more 

 largely to the wants and even to the comforts of man than 

 the American bison. The horns are converted into powder- 

 llasks ; the hide, which, according to Catesby, is too heavy 

 for the strongest man to lift from the ground, is very va- 

 luable, and is used for a variety of purposes. Purchas re- 

 lates, that in old times the Indians made the best of targets 

 of it ; and Catesby says that they make their winter moc- 

 casins of it also, but that, being too heavy for clothing, it is 

 not often put to that use. Others, however, assert that the 



Indians dress the skins with the hair on, and clothe them- 

 selves with them, and that the Europeans of Louisiana 

 (Louisiana, in the older sense of the term before the pur- 

 chase of it by the United States in 1803) use them for 

 blankets, and find them light, warm, and soft. Dr. Ri- 

 chardson confirms the latter account, for he says in the 

 work above quoted, ' The fine wool which clothes the bison 

 renders its skin- when properly dressed, an excellent blanket ; 

 and they are valued so highly, that a good one sells for 

 three or four pounds in Canada, where they are used as 

 wrappers by those who travel over the snow in carioles.' 

 Thomas Morton (in his New English Canaan, Amsterdam, 

 1637,) observes, that ' their fleeces are very useful, being a 

 kind of wolle, as fine almost as the wolle of the beaver, and 

 the salvages do make garments thereof.' Catesby says that 

 the Indians work the long hairs into garters, aprons, &c., 

 dyeing them into various colours ; and, according to Pen- 

 nant, the hair or wool is spun into cloth, gloves, stockings, 

 and garters, which are very strong, and look as well as 

 those made of the best sheep's wool. Pennant further says 

 that the fleece of one of these animals has been found to 

 weigh eight pounds, and quotes the authority of Governor 

 Pownall for the assurance that the most luxurious fabric 

 might be made of it. This assurance, it appears, was far 

 from groundless, for Dr. Richardson informs us that the 

 wool has been manufactured in England into a remarkably 

 fine and beautiful cloth; and that in the colony of Osna- 

 boyna, on the Red River, a warm and durable coarse cloth 

 is formed of it. ^ 



The flesh of a bison in good condition, says the author 

 last quoted, is very juicy and well-flavoured, much resem- 

 bling that of well-fed beef. Others describe it as bearing 

 the same relation to common beef that venison bears to 

 mutton. The tongue, when well cured, is said to surpass 

 that of the common ox as a relish. All concur in the praises 

 of the delicious hump, rich, savoury, and tender. This is 

 the fleshy part that covers the long spinous processes of the 

 anterior dorsal vertebrae, and is called bos by the Canadian 

 voyagers, and wig by the Orkney men in the service of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, according to Dr. Richardson, who 

 says that much of the pemmican used by the voyagers 

 attached to the fur companies is made of bison meat, pro- 

 cured at their posts on the Red River and Saskatchewan : 

 he adds, that one bison-cow in good condition furnishes 

 dried meat and fat enough to make a bag of pemmican 

 weighing ninety pounds. 



The fat bulls yield a great quantity of tallow ; and Du 

 Pratz records that a hundred and fifty pounds weight have 

 been procured from a single beast. Pennant says that 

 these over-fed animals usually become the prey of wolves, 

 for, by reason of their great unwieldiness, they cannot keep 

 up with the herd ; and, on the authority of Du Pratz, gives 

 the following account of their sagacity in defending them- 

 selves against the attacks of their fierce persecutors 

 ' When they scent the approach of a drove of those ravenous 

 creatures, the herd flings itself into the form of a circle : 

 the weakest keep in the middle, the strongest are ranged on 

 the outside, presenting to the enemy an impenetrable front 

 of horns : should they be taken by surprise, and have re- 

 course to flight, numbers of the faltest or the -weakest are 

 sure to perish.' Dr. Richardson, however, speaking of the 

 numerous wolves on the sandy plains which, lying to the 

 eastward of the Rocky Mountains, extend from the sources 

 of the Peace and Saskatchewan rivers towards the Missouri, 

 says, that there bands of them hang on the skirts of the 

 buffalo herds, and prey upon the sick and straggling calves, 

 but that they do not, under ordinary circumstances, venture 

 to attack the full-grown animal. As a proof of this he 

 adds, that the hunters informed him that they often saw 

 wolves walking through a herd of bulls without exciting the 

 least alarm, and that the marksmen, when they crawl to- 

 wards a bison for the purpose of shooting it, occasionally 

 wear a cap with two ears, in imitation of the head of a volt, 

 knowing from experience that they will be suffered to ap- 

 proach nearer in that guise. 



The grisly bear is one of the most formidable enemies of 

 the American bison ; and the strongest bull goes down 

 before him. [See BEAR.] 



The Indian is too wild in his habits to submit to the 

 fetters which an attempt to domesticate animals would im- 

 pose upon his liberty ; a child of the wilderness, he depends 

 on his bow or his rifle for his subsistence, and wanders free. 

 It is not, therefore, surprising that no attempt should have 



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