THE AMERICAN BISONS. 207 



fences, built of sticks, logs, and brushwood, form in a similar way a funnel- 

 shaped entrance to the enclosure or " park," as it is usually called, which 

 may be either square or round according to the nature of the ground. The 

 narrow end or entrance is always on the verge of a sudden break in the 

 prairie, ten or fifteen feet deep, and is made as strong as possible. When 

 the pen is ready a young man, very swift of foot, starts at daylight towards 

 the herd that is to be taken, provided with a bison's hide and head, with 

 which he is to disguise himself for the purpose of acting as a decoy. On 

 nearing the herd he bleats like a calf, and makes his way slowly towards the 

 mouth of the converging fences leading to the pen. Repeating the cry at 

 intervals, the buffaloes follow the decoy, while mounted Indians, riding to 

 and fro along the flanks and rear of the herd, urge them on towards the 

 funnel. A crowd of men, women, and children then come and assist in 

 frightening them, the disguised Indian still occasionally bleating. As soon 

 as the buffaloes have fairly entered the road to the pen, the decoy runs to 

 the edge of the precipice, quickly descends, and makes his escape by climb- 

 ing over the fence forming the pen. The herd follows on until the leader 

 is forced to leap down into the pen, and is followed by the whole herd, 

 which being thus ensnared is easily destroyed, even the women and children 

 participating in the slaughter.* 



This method, if not still practised in the Yellowstone country, was in use 

 there at no distant date, since while with the Yellowstone Expedition of 

 1873 I several times met with the remains of these pounds and their con- 

 verging fences in the region above the mouth of the Big Horn River. They 

 are here, I was told, used in entrapping the elk and deer as well as the buf- 

 falo ; and, according to Charlevoix, the Indians of Canada formerly hunted 

 the moose, the carihou, and the deer in a somewdiat similar manner. 



On the plains, where no timber is available for the construction of pounds, 

 the Indians pursue a different but an almost equally destructive method. 

 The hunting party, numbering usually hundreds of horsemen, select such a 

 portion of a large herd as they desire to destroy, and, surrounding them, 

 thus cut them off from the rest of the herd, and prevent their escape in 

 every direction by enclosing them with a cordon of armed horsemen. The 

 slaughter is begun simultaneously on all sides ; and whichever way the herd 

 moves they encounter their invincible and deadly enemies. The slaughter 

 usually continues until the whole "surround" is killed, often numbering hun- 



* Audubon and Baehiuan's Quadrupeds of North America, Vol. II, p. 41). 



