386 MAMMALIA~BISON. 
animals, to leap together from the brink of a dreadful precipice, upon a rocky 
and broken surface, a hundred feet below. 
When the Indians determine to destroy bisons in this way, one of their 
swiftest footed and most active young men is selected, who is disguised in 
a bison skin, having the head, ears, and horns adjusted on his own head, so 
as to make the deception very complete; and thus accoutred, he stations 
himself between the bison herd and some of the precipices, that often 
extend for several miles along the rivers. The Indians surround the herd 
as nearly as possible, when, at a given signal, they show themselves and 
rush forward with loud yells. The animals being alarmed, and seeing no 
way open but in the direction of the disguised Indian, run towards him, and 
he, taking to flight, dashes on to the precipice, where he suddenly secures 
himself in some previously ascertained crevice. The foremost of the herd 
arrives at the brink—there is no possibility of retreat, no chance of escape; 
the foremost may for an instant shrink with terror, but the crowd behind, 









who are terrified by the approaching hunters, rush forward with increasing 
impetuosity, and the aggregated force hurls them successively into the 
gulf, where certain death awaits them. 
The Indians make a bison pound, by fencing a circular space of about 
a hundred yards in diameter. The entrance is banked up with snow, 
sufficiently high to prevent the animals from retreating after they have 
once entered. For about a mile on each side of the road leading to the 
pound, stakes are driven into the ground at nearly equal distances, of about 
twenty yards, which are intended to look like men, and to deter the animals 
from endeavoring to break through the fence. Within fifty or sixty yards 
of the pound, branches of trees are placed between the stakes, to screen the 
Indians, who lie down behind them, to wait fer the approach of the bison. 
The mounted hunters display the greatest dexterity in this sort of chase, as 
they are obliged to mancuvre around the herd in the plains so as to urge 
them into the road-way, which is about a quarter of a mile broad. When 
