222 



BURSTING OF TRADE-GUNS. 



selling these things as firearms; and we always took 

 good care to denounce the practice, and to point out 

 that that was not the sort of thing done by the " King 

 George's men. " * 



During a run with buffalo, Indians never used to 

 measure their powder charge, a handful was put in 

 by guess work fortunately some of it got spilled and 

 did not enter the barrel at all, and also the powder 

 they used was of a very poor quality, not nearly so 

 strong as English sporting powders: this probably 

 minimized the mutilations that were of such constant 

 occurrence. In fact the white plainsmen boldly asserted 

 that x a great hunt rarely came off without somebody 

 losing his hand, or being otherwise badly hurt. 



Indeed this practice of loading with loose powder was 

 a bad and dangerous one for white men's guns; and 

 personally we preferred to make up ball cartridges for 

 use on such occasions ; at other times a military breech- 

 loading carbine, of the U.S. " Sharp " pattern came 

 in useful. 



The falls that hunters were exposed to while run- 

 ning buffalo were often very serious; the ground was 

 often exceedingly rough, and at times full of buffalo 

 wallows, at others honeycombed by holes made by 

 moles, gophers, and other small burrowing animals. 

 The dust also, if the plain was dry, rendered it impos- 

 sible to see anything but a confused mass of raging 

 quadrupeds, flying headlong from their deadly enemies, 

 so that avoiding obstacles was almost out of the question. 



* The Indian name for " the English" (These arms, we ought to say, 

 were surreptitiously sold mostly by illicit traders, as the free traffic in 

 firearms, at the time we speak of, was forbidden by the U.S. Govern- 

 ment. The American people were therefore in no way responsible for 

 these iniquities). 



