282 BIG GAME OP^ NORTH AMERICA. 



for generations safely depended upon this animal for the 

 support of their families. 



Each hunter was outfitted with one or more ponies to 

 be used in running Buffaloes, and with a strange kind of 

 home-made, two-wheeled cart, made wholly of wood (not 

 so much as a linch-pin of iron in all the train), and drawn 

 by a single ox working in shafts. Their primitive caravan, 

 quite independent of roads, moved freely in any direction 

 across the broad j)lains; and as the cart-wheels were never 

 greased, their coming was heralded by a most unearthly 

 screeching. At night, the carts were drawn up in the form 

 of a circle, and after the oxen and ponies had grazed, they 

 were driven inside the inclosure and the gap closed, ren- 

 dering a night stampede impossible. 



When Buffaloes were sighted, the mounted hunters 

 approached them armed with llint-lock shotguns loaded 

 with ball, and with a powder-horn with a large vent [in 

 order that powder might run rapidlj^ from it), from whic/i 

 the stopi^er had been removed before the chase began, and 

 with the mouth filled with musket-balls just small enough 

 to roll freely down the gun-barrel. When their fire had 

 been delivered, the hammer and pan-cover of the gun were 

 drawn quickly back, the muzzle of the gun elevated, the 

 open powder-horn inverted, and its contents permitted to 

 run freely into the gun-barrel until the hunter judged that 

 a sufficient quantity had run in, when the horn was 

 dropi)ed and allowed to fall into its position, right end up, 

 by the hunter's side. The muzzle of the gun was then 

 drawn up to the hunter' s lips, a bullet dropped into it, and 

 the wild, rough rider was ready for another victim. All 

 this had been done with the horse racing at top speed. 

 By keeping the muzzle of the gun elevated, and only 

 depressing it at the instant the quick aim was taken and 

 the trigger pulled, it was no uncommon thing for half a 

 dozen Buffaloes to be slain by a single hunter in one mad 

 race. 



Five good milch-cows were vainly offered for the first 

 Sharp's carbine ever introduced on the Red River. 



