METHOD OF KILLING BUFFALO. 19 



of five cows and two calves. Laronde weut on ahead of us, as 

 we had slower horses than the day before, and he had his old 



horse, which M had ridden on the previous day, and before 



we could come up with him he had four buffaloes down, three 

 cows and a calf, and yet he was using a single muzzle-loading 

 flint-lock gun, called a trade gun, and costing in London 

 seven and sixpence. His plan was as follows : The powder 

 was in a bag carried on his belt and the bullets were in his 

 mouth. He would put in half a handful of powder, and then 

 drop in a wet ball, giving the gun a slap, to drive the ball 

 home and the powder into the enormous pan, when he would 

 lower the gun and fire at once, the muzzle being within a foot 

 of the buffalo; and aiming just under the spine at the small 

 of the back, the animal was down at once and could not rise 



again. I got one of the calves and C another cow. 



M 's horse behaved badly and would not stand fire. 



We should not have killed so many had we not been close to 

 a camp of Crees, to whom we gave the meat and they gave us 

 in exchange two wolf-skins. These were the first Indians that 

 I had a good opportunity of seeing close, and I came to the 

 conclusion that they were much better when not seen too near. 



M and I slept in a lodge one night, and we had to work 



hard to rid ourselves of the consequences. 



One morning a small band of antelopes came near camp, and 

 while they were examining it very curiously, not having our 



wind, C and I crept out and tried to stalk them. It was 



a bare prairie, but there were hollows here and there, deep 

 enough to hide us, and with infinite trouble and much loss of 

 skin from our knees (the prairie having been burnt in the 



spring and consequently covered with sharp stubs) we got 



c2 



