'20± THE AMERICAS BISONS. 



arrow, or drives his Inner to their hearts. This being the season for gather- 

 ing the robes, it is also a period ofgre&l slaughter. The skins being stripped 

 off, the carcasses are generally left to the wolves, the Indians laying in dur- 

 ing the fall a supply of dried meat for the winter. Catlin has also given an 

 illustration of Indians disguised in wolf-skins creeping upon a herd that is 

 unsuspectingly grazing on the level prairie, where they are shot down before 

 they are aware of their danger by their disguised enemies.* 



Lewis and Clarke describe a very novel method of destroying the buffa- 

 loes formerly practised by the MinnVtarces of the Upper Missouri. This 

 mode of hunting was to select one of the most active and fleet young men, 

 who, disguised with a buffalo-skin fastened about his body, with the bonis 

 and ears so secured as to deceive the buffalo, placed himself at a convenient 

 distance between the herd of buffalo and some of the river precipices, which 

 sometimes extend lor miles. His companions in the mean time get in the 

 rear and along the flanks of the herd, and. showing themselves at a given >ig- 

 nal, advance upon the herd. The herd thus alarmed runs from the hunters 

 toward the disguised Indian, whom they follow at full speed toward the river. 

 The Indian who thus acts as a decoy, when the precipice i< reached, suddenly 

 secures himself in some crevice of the cliff which he had previously selected. 

 leaving the herd on the brink. It is then impossible for the foremost of the 

 heid to ivu eat or to turn aside, being pressed on by those behind, who see 

 no danger except from the pursuing Indians. They are thus tumbled head- 

 long over the cliff, strewing the shore with their dead bodies The Indians 

 then select as much meat as they wish, the rest being abandoned to the 

 wolves. A little above the mouth of the Judith River, on the .Missouri. 

 Lewis and Clarke passed a precipice, aboul one hundred and twenty feel n 



height, at the base of which lay scattered the fragments of at least one hun- 

 dred carcasses of buffaloes, although many had already been carried away 

 ly the water.! 



Lewis and Clarke also deserihe the Indian method of hunting the buffalo 

 on the ice. ,i> witnessed hy them March l!'.'. 1806, at t heir wintering-DOSl on 

 the Missouri River, aboul thirty miles above the proem Bite of Fori Ahraham 

 Lincoln, Dakota Territory. E2verj Bpring, say these authors, as the river is 



breaking up. the plains are set on lire ly the Indians. The buflaloee are 



thus tempted to cross the river in search of the fresh green grass that springs 



itli \m. ,1, .,,, Incline. Y,,|. II. pp 



t Lewi* and Clarko'i Expediti Vol. I. | 



