44 THE BISOX. 



of Texas. The Sioux in the Xorth, and the Comanches 

 in the South, hunt in a more legitimate style — they 

 are the true buffalo-hunters. 



The buffalo-hunter must exercise great caution in 

 advancing towards a herd of these animals, taking every 

 advantao^e of the wind and of the crround if it be at all 

 uneven. Grreat silence, too, must be kept, although their 

 sense of smell is more acute than that of hearinor. 



In all probability the earliest method employed for 

 the wholesale destruction of the buffalo was that of 

 driving a whole herd over a precipice into the chasm 

 beneath. When a herd once takes to flight, it holds a 

 straight course, for it can scarcely be turned, and the 

 Indians, well aware of this fact, would of course take 

 advantage of it. This sport, or rather murder, was 

 practised thus : A spot would be chosen upon one of 

 the many canons which intersect the great plains where 

 the banks of the chasm were perfectly level and un- 

 broken, and at a spot where the precipice descended 

 abruptly for a hundred feet or more. Then the red- 

 hunters would gather ' buffalo chips,' the prairie bois 

 de vache, which they piled up at regular distances 

 about twenty yards apart ; these, being so treated as to 

 represent men, were arranged in two rows, beginning 

 at the caiion and the wings, gradually extending out- 

 wards, till at their extremities they were at least half- 

 a-mile asunder. Having thus placed their dumriiies, 

 the Indians would cautiously surround a herd and 



