230 GRUI3ING5 UN THE CASCADES 



Ponderous spears were hurled with the power and 

 precision of giants and struck down the defenceless 

 victims as a sturdy woodman strikes down the frail 

 sapling in his path. 



" Crack!" " crack!" came from rifles, and 

 "ping!" "ping!" from carbines and revolvers. 

 Hundreds of shots were fired by those who carried 

 firearms, and before these murderous weapons, the 

 poor bison sank like ripened grain before the reap- 

 er's blade. 



One young warrior, more ardent and fearless than 

 the rest, had forced his high-strung steed far into 

 the midst of the solid phalanx, where the horse 

 was finally impaled upon the horns of a monster 

 bull. He and his rider were tossed like sheaves of 

 wheat into the air; then both sank to earth, and 

 were instantly trodden into the dust. 



At last the great storm had passed, and our friends 

 watched until it faded away in the distance and 

 finally disappeared from their view. 



Then came the squaws, the boys, and the old men, 

 to dispatch the wounded and to skin and cut up the 

 dead. These were strewn all over the prairie, and 

 not a tithe of them were, or could be, saved by all 

 the people, white and red, assembled there. 



Our hunters returned to camp at sunset, where 

 they met those of their companions who had been 

 out during the afternoon, and over the evening 

 camp fire, each related the thrilling incidents which 

 he had witnessed, or in which he had participated 

 during the day. 



On the following morning they again started out in 

 several parties of five or six each and going in various 



