THE BUFFALO. 215 



great caution ami the most careful stalking. Another rea- 

 son is, that every man can tell what meat belongs to him 

 by the private mark on his arrows ; so all that the squaws 

 have to do is to search for the arrows of their husbands, 

 and commence an immediate dissection of the carcasses in 

 which they are planted. If a precipice is convenient, the 

 red men avoid all trouble by driving the herds toward it, 

 and into this they tumble headlong ; for they move at such 

 a velocity, and are so crowded together, that the rear push- 

 es the front downward, and all follow in the most stupid 

 manner, though they may see the danger before them. 

 Many thousands are destroyed in this way, and many more 

 by being lost in quicksands, or swallowed up in the ice and 

 turbulent currents of large rivers; so that fate seems to 

 aim at their destruction. 



One of the meanest devices ever instituted by man for 

 their destruction is that practised by some persons south 

 of the Platte River, in Nebraska. Streams being exceed- 

 ingly scarce there, the poor creatures have to travel many 

 miles sometimes to obtain water, and, when they reach it, 

 they are so desperate from thirst that nothing except death 

 can prevent them from having it. Hunters, knowing this, 

 post themselves along the streams and kill them as they 

 come to drink; but for fear their work by day should not 

 prove effective enough, they build fires at night, and by 

 this means keep the dying creatures away from the water 

 for three or four days at a time. When, however, they can 

 stand the pangs of thirst no longer, they rush for the pre- 

 cious fluid, preferring death to unbearable misery ; and 

 many sink, to rise no more, under the leaden hail of nu- 

 merous rifles. Herd after herd is frequently slaughtered 

 in this barbarous manner, until scarcely any remain in a 

 large tract of country. The result is, that few, compara-' 

 tively speaking, are now found there, though they could be 

 counted by the thousands a few years ago. 



I have had some exciting and pleasant runs after the 

 buffalo on horseback, and I have stalked it on a few occa- 

 sions ; but the latter method seems to me to be little better 



