118 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



unrestrained desire to kill. No part of our wild life can 

 withstand the destructive influence of men armed with 

 modern guns; man and gun spell their doom, and the only 

 salvation for any species is the restriction by law of the 

 number that may be killed. These considerations, however, 

 had no import in the early days of the buffalo. It was 

 faced with men armed with powerful firearms, who killed 

 without any regard for the future, and there was a complete 

 absence of any restrictions on the part of all the governments 

 concerned. The Indians, who had always regarded the 

 buffalo as the source of their meat supply, had their point 

 of view entirely changed in so far as the number of animals 

 to be killed was concerned. Their passion for killing was 

 inflamed by the example of the white hunters, with serious 

 economic results when their source of meat was wiped out. 

 Various methods of slaughter were followed. The ex- 

 traordinary stupidity of the animals made them an easy 

 prey for the still-hunters. Still-hunting (Plate XI) was 

 conducted on business lines, and was highly profitable when 

 over a hundred animals could be killed from one stand, and 

 the robes were worth two dollars and four dollars each. The 

 practice of hunting on horseback provided an exciting sport, 

 and when the hunters — white, half-breed, and Indians — went 

 out in armies the results were disastrous to the herds, par- 

 ticularly as the cows were especially chosen, owing to the 

 superior value of their skins. A favourite method employed 

 by the Indians was that of impounding or killing the animals 

 in pens, into which they were driven. This method was 

 commonly practised by the Plains Crees in the South Sas- 

 katchewan country. The terrible scenes that attended these 

 wholesale slaughters of the herds are beyond description. 

 Other methods of slaughter on a large scale were surround- 

 ing, decoying, and driving the animals, and all tended 

 towards the same end — complete extermination of the herds. 

 As the animals became more scarce the half-breeds and In- 



