214 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



When the hunters range along-side the crowding multi- 

 tude they use rifle and revolver so rapidly that the noise 

 sounds like the firing of a heavy body of skirmishers. 

 They require few shots to kill an animal, one or two being 

 generally sufficient ; for their trained buffalo-runners carry 

 them so close to the herd that a bullet can be planted in 

 whatever portion of the body the hunter wishes. The re- 

 sult is that, in a run of perhaps twenty miles, a thousand 

 or two animals may be lying on the ground, and in some 

 instances double that number. When the recall is sound- 

 ed, the horsemen return and devote their attention to the 

 wounded, and soon put them out of their misery. The 

 carts follow the hunters and gather up the meat, and the 

 greater portion of that is, in a few hours, ready to be placed 

 on the drying-stages, while the hides are being prepared 

 for curing. When the expedition returns after the grand 

 hunt, which sometimes lasts for weeks, its members have 

 meat enough to feed them for several months, and many a 

 buffalo-robe with which to provide clothing and luxuries 

 for their families. 



A good robe is worth from two to four dollars; so it 

 will be seen that they can earn a handsome sum in a short 

 time. A spring robe, when the animal has very little hair 

 on its body, and it looks like a shorn poodle, is worth only 

 one or one and a half dollars, yet the skin-hunters slay it 

 even then, for this paltry sum, in large numbers. 



The Indian hunts that I witnessed were something like 

 the one described, except that they used short, powerful 

 bows and heavy arrows in preference to fire-arms. The 

 reason they gave for this was, that the former made no 

 noise, and did not therefore terrify the animals so much as 

 the latter would, or cause them to leave the country, and so 

 make a long pursuit a necessity. By using arrows, they 

 could hunt for several days within an area of twenty 

 square miles, whereas the use of rifles would make them 

 travel perhaps ten or twenty miles before they could find 

 a herd ; and it would then be so timid that to approach it 

 might prove a difficult matter, and would certainly require 



