1 70 SJ'OX TING A D VENTURES 



well-known bois t/c ntc/tc of the Canadian wyitfjeurs and half- 

 breeds, and the "chips'" of the plainsmen with fire ; and its 

 bones often supply him with arrow tips and other implements 

 of the chase. 



The statement so frequently made that the red man and the 

 buffalo will disappear together is certainly true in a particular 

 sense, for when the latter becomes so scarce as not to be able 

 to supply the wants of the former, he will have to devote his 

 attention to farming 1 or stock-raising- to obtain a means of 

 subsistence,, and as he cannot, or will not, do either of these, 

 he must become a pensioner of the Government, and the result 

 will be speedy starvation, or a war in which he will be deci- 

 mated. In that case we shall know the typical Indian no 

 more, and instead of the fierce, treacherous, and cruel brave, 

 we shall have a sneaking 1 , begging, poor wretch who will, at 

 an early day, be placed in the soil where his rude forefathers 

 sleep, and his race will no longer be known on earth. The 

 flesh of the buffalo has been the principal, one might say the 

 sole food, of many thousands of Indians, half-breeds, trappers, 

 and voyageurs for many years; and considering their thought- 

 lessness and their wanton destruction of all game at times, 

 a person might wonder how it happens that the buffalo is so 

 numerous as it is. 



AVhat these people do not eat fresh they dry, or make into 

 pemmican. The drying process is simple enough. A number 

 of poles, about four feet high, and having a crotch at the top, 

 are inserted in the ground, and on these are placed light- 

 boughs, to make a platform. Tinder this platform, and about 

 the middle, a shallow trench is dug, which is filled with green 

 wood so as to make as much smoke as possible. The flesh is 

 next sliced off the carcass in long strips about two inches 

 wide, and from half an inch to an inch in thickness, and is 

 placed on the frame, after being immersed for a few seconds 

 in boiling brine; but if salt is scarce the meat is dried without 

 it. AVhen the staging is carefully and evenly covered with 

 the strips, the fire is lighted, and kept burning for two or 

 three days, but never so brightly as to do more than make 

 a dense smoke, as it is the dry air and sun that really cure the 



