OENIG] THE ASSINIBOIN 535 



back and reloads his gun (lying in this position) by putting the butt 

 against his foot — and when ready will turn over on his belly and 

 fire again, and so on, sometimes killing six or eight without changing 

 his place, or with very little movement. 



As soon as he rises the herd runs off and he commences skinning. 

 Some hunters mimic the bleating of a calf and thus decoy the buffalo 

 to them, but this is a rare talent, and only practiced by a few good 

 performers ; in hilly places or where there are gullies and bushes to 

 hide the hunter, neither buffalo nor antelope are difficult to kill, but 

 on the barren and level plain it requires great exertion, time and 

 patience. 



Another method by which great numbers of both buffalo and ante- 

 lope are slain is, when the snow has drifted in the gullies, forming 

 banks 10 to 15 feet deep. The animals are pursued on foot, with 

 raquettes and snowslioes. The hunter goes over the snow, but the 

 animals become embedded and are killed with ease. In the summer 

 if several animals are killed, the meat is placed in a pile covered 

 with the hides, and a portion of the hunter's clothing left on it, the 

 scent of which prevents the wolves from coming to it. Occasionally 

 the bladder of the animal is inflated, small pebbles put in, which 

 being tied to a stick and stirred by the wind, will keep off the 

 wolves and foxes. 



But in the winter the usual way is to bury the meat in the snow, 

 which effectually prevents the wolves from eating it, as they have 

 no power of smell through a foot of snow. Meat can be left in this 

 way in perfect security for a month or more, but they usually 

 return with their clogs and take it away the next day. If the hunter 

 goes out on horseback he leaves his horse near the buffalo, and 

 after having killed in the manner stated, packs him home with the 

 meat and hide, but in the deep snow horses can not travel, the dogs 

 do not sink much in the snow and the men and women go over it on 

 snowshoes. 



Antelope are hunted in the same way as the preceding, also some- 

 times decoyed by tying some portion of clothing to a pole, the 

 man lying down and raising and lowering the pole at intervals, or 

 by kicking up his heels, one after the other. They have great curi- 

 osity to see the strange object, and after making many circles will 

 come near enough to get a shot, though as soon as they make out 

 the man they are off. A wolf skin is decidedly the best disguise 

 when hunting any of the animals on foot. 



It may as well be recorded here that all young hunters sacrifice 

 the first game they kill by cutting it up and giving it to the crows, 

 magpies and wolves, saying to each, " I give you this that I may 

 always be able to kill and feed the wolves, that I may be successful 



