212 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



sport, as tlioy bring- out the qualities of the hunter; but the 

 last two are merely taking advantage of the animal's inability 

 to travel in deep snow, then assassinating it. 



The Indians of the Far "West capture it by means of pitfalls, 

 lying in wait near its haunts and shooting it as it passes them, 

 and by grand drives, in which probably two or three hundred 

 warriors are sometimes engaged. Some of the Indians of the 

 Territories and portions of British America have an annual 

 drive, in which they slaughter the poor creatures in large 

 numbers ; but they, unlike the wretched white " skin-hunters," 

 utilize the meat for making pemmican, and the hides for 

 making clothing, snow-shoes, and moccasins, whereas the 

 latter leave the carcass to rot on the ground, taking only the 

 hide. They also destroy without regard to sex, and gravid 

 females and calves are slaughtered as readily as old bulls. 

 These hides bring, in winter, when the coat is inclined to be 

 dark and the inner hair close and woolly, from four to five 

 dollars, and for this sum men travel weary miles and destroy 

 some of the finest animals on the continent with a recklessness 

 of consequences worse than barbarous. If the destruction 

 continues as it has been carried on heretofore, the animal will 

 soon be a memory of the past, and will be known only through 

 works on Natural History. 



I have not had as much experience in hunting it as other 

 large game, for in the Far West, where it is common, it was 

 dangerous to frequent its haunts a few years ago, owing to 

 the enmity of the Indians against all intruders on their 

 preserves, and the fact that white men could only follow it 

 with safety in large parties, as it was a stranger in places 

 settled by them. 



I have followed it in several portions of the continent, how- 

 ever, from Maine to Western British America; but I must say 

 that the hunters I accompanied were more frequently unsuc- 

 cessful than otherwise, owing to its extreme caution and 

 speed, and the wooded and often mountainous character of its 

 home. All my expeditions were not failures, however, and 

 I have enjoyed some delightful sport with it that atoned for 

 laborious days and nights spent in its vain pursuit. In Idaho 



