DECREASE OF THE BUFFALO. .101 



of the scene ; althougli at some seasons (and 

 particularly in the fall) these prairies are liter- 

 ally strewed with herds of this animal. Then, 

 ' thousands and tens of thousands' might at 

 times be seen from this eminence. But the 

 huffalo is a migratory animal, and even in the 

 midst of the Prairies where they are generally 

 so very abundant, we sometimes travel for 

 days A^dthout seeing a single one ; though no 

 signs of hunter or IncUan can be discovered. 

 To say the truth, however, I have never seen 

 them anywhere ux^on the Prairies so abun- 

 dant as some travellers have represented — in 

 dense masses, darkening the whole prairies. 

 I have only found them in scattered herds, of 

 a few scores, hundreds, or sometimes thou- 

 sands in each, and where in the greatest 

 numbers, dispersed far and wide; but with 

 large intervals between. Yet they are very 

 sensibly and rapidly decreasmg. There is a 

 current notion that the whites frighten them 

 away ; but, I would aslc, where do they go 

 to ? To be sure, to use a hunter's phrase, they 

 * frighten a few out of their skms ;' yet for 

 every one killed by the wliites, more than a 

 hundred, perhaps a thousand, fall by the hands 

 of the savages. From these, however, tliere 

 is truly ' nowhere to flee ;' for they follow 

 them wheresoever they go: while the poor 

 brutes instinctively learn to avoid the fixed 

 establishments, and, to some degree, the regu- 

 lar travelling routes of the whites. 



As the caravan was passing under the 

 northern base of the Round Mound, it pre- 



9* 



