AX INDIAN STRATAGEM. 27 



hotly pressed, the buffalo will turn on its pursuer, and its 

 great strength renders it a formidable antagonist. 



The bison meets with an active and relentless enemy in 

 the white wolf. Hunting in packs of one to two hun- 

 dred, these gaunt and bloodthirsty animals fling themselves 

 upon two or three wandering bisons, w^hich have separated 

 by accident or intention from the herd, and surrounding 

 them, worry the huge beasts to death. They have never 

 the daring, however", to attack a herd ; though the latter, 

 if they catch sight of the wolfish pack, however distant, 

 immediately exhibit a panic-terror, and form into a kind 

 of battle-array. The wily Indian hunter knows how to 

 profit by this instinctive dread. He assumes the skin of a 

 wolf, and with bow and arrows in his hand courageously 

 confronts the herd, crawling slowly on his hands and 

 knees. The terrified buffaloes huddle together in a con- 

 fused mass to encounter their traditional enemy, when, on 

 arriving within a convenient range, the Indian suddenly 

 starts to his feet, and utters a wild and "eldritch scream." 

 In the frenzy of fear which this occasions, he is enabled to 

 select and bring down several victims, while the remainder 

 of the herd gallop away madly, as if pursued by the Furies. 



The Indians also capture considerable numbers by setting 

 fire to the prairie gi'ass ; the flames drive the buffaloes to 

 a central point, where they are easily surrounded and 

 slaughtered. Or they seek some means of goading them 

 into one of their strange excesses of terror, when, if driven 

 towards a precipice, they will dash themselves headlong 

 over the brink, falling crushed and bleeding into the chasm 

 beneath. 



