46 HUNTING SPORTS OF THE WEST- 



of tho Pawnees will launch their arrows with sucK force 

 as to drive them almost up to the feathered end in the 

 animal's body. Nay, it is said that they are sometimes 

 shot clean through him, and left quivering in the ground 

 beyond. 



The ordinary way of shooting the buffalo by civilized 

 sportsmen, is either by hunting him or by stalking. The 

 former is accomplished on horseback, bringing him down 

 at a long shot. The latter is done on foot, creeping along 

 from bush to bush, hiding here, and dodging there, keep- 

 ing in such a direction that the wind may not blow the 

 scent of the hunter to his game, in stealing upon him un- 

 awares. But there is no object of the chase that takes 

 so much killing as the poor buffalo. His enormous frame 

 offers so wide a range of others than fatal marks for a 

 bullet, that the chances are, save in skillful hands, that 

 the wretched animal may be riddled before he falls. A 

 well-placed shot behind the shoulder, will soon bring 

 down even his vast bulk ; and it should not be forgotten 

 that though we may, and must kill these creatures, it is 

 our duty to do so with as little suffering to them as pos- 

 sible. A bungling sportsman deserves to rank with a 

 butcher ; and not even with him, if he is expert at his 

 business. 



Hunting buffalo is not the only business of the Indians 

 of the prairie. The wild horse that scours those bound- 

 less plains forms a still more exciting chase. No pop- 

 ping at him with rifles, or twanging bow-strings at him ; 

 he must be taken alive and uninjured. And my lord is 

 not always so easily caught as his pursuers would wish. 

 If a troop of horses is seen, the mode employed is that 



