2l8 "RUNNING" BUFFALO IN THE FAR WEST. 



to fall over its prostrate body. Buffalo hunters 

 in those days, when of course only the muzzle-loader 

 was used, used to go into action with a quantity of 

 loose powder in one pocket, and the mouth full of 

 bullets. A handful of powder was then poured hap- 

 hazard into the gun, a wet bullet was thrown down 

 on top of it, small enough to run easily down the 

 barrel; then a cap was put on, or the flint-lock 

 primed and bang! went the gun again. Sometimes 

 a man would kill several animals to his own gun in 

 this way, in the course of a single run ; but more often 

 many shots were fired and a man got only one or 

 two, or perhaps none at all; for in the confusion it 

 was often difficult to say how many the hunter had 

 killed, while large numbers of wounded animals got 

 away, only to die miserably, after days and perhaps 

 weeks of suffering, by becoming the prey of the 

 numerous white wolves which hung upon the outskirts 

 of the great herds, on the look-out for victims. 



Still it was an exciting scene while it lasted, and 

 formed a bright picture in memory's pages in after- 

 days, which the old hunter loves to look back upon ; 

 and personally we esteem it a privilege to have wit- 

 nessed and shared in many an exciting chase upon 

 the great hunting grounds of the Far West, in the 

 grand old days now gone, when buffalo were plentiful, 

 and game of all kinds abundant. 



The Prairie Indians in former days were noted for their 

 skill in " making a surround, " and killing vast numbers 

 of buffalo in this way after a regular cavalry skirmish, 

 and as the result of many personal encounters between 

 man and beast, the prairie was sometimes strewn with 

 the carcases of the slain, like a regular battle-field. We 



