THE AMERICAN BISONS. 209 



the herd took flight, and horse and rider are presently seen bursting in 

 among them ; shots are heard, and all is smoke, dust, and hurry. The fattest 

 are first singled out for slaughter, and in less time than we have occupied 

 with the description a thousand carcasses strew the plain. Those who have 

 seen a squadron of horse dart into battle may imagine the scene, which we 

 have no skill to depict. The earth seemed to tremble when the horses 

 started ; but when the animals fled it was like the shock of an earthquake. 

 The air was darkened ; the rapid firing, at first distinct, soon became more 

 and more faint, and at last died away in the distance. Two hours, and all 

 was over; but several hours elapsed before the result was known, or the 

 hunters reassembled ; .... in the evening no less than thirteen hundred 

 and seventy-five tongues were brought into camp." * 



The dexterity in loading and firing on horseback while at full speed exhib- 

 ited by these half-breeds, as well as their tact in recognizing their game on 

 the field of slaughter after the killing is over, is represented as surprising. 

 Formerly, when hunting with the old flint-lock musket, says Mr. Taylor,! 

 they would drop a charge of powder into the palm of the hand, thence into 

 the muzzle of the gun, following it with a bullet from a stock carried in the 

 mouth, firing as often as this operation could be repeated. The use of 

 modern breech-loading arms, however, long since rendered this process need- 

 less. They seldom leave a mark to designate their own animals, though 

 some do so, leaving first a cap, then a sash, and so on, until, as often hap- 

 pens, these means of designation fail, five or six to a dozen buffaloes being 

 generally killed in a single run by a good hunter. Riding in clouds of dust 

 and smoke, in company with hundreds of other horsemen, crossing and re- 

 crossing each other's tracks, among dead and wounded as well as among the 

 terrified and fleeing animals, it certainly evinces, on the part of the hunter, 

 no small degree of discriminating power, after an hour of such wild, bewilder- 

 ing confusion, to tell not only the number of animals he has killed, but also 

 the exact spot where each lies. Yet this, we are told, is constantly done. 



According to Simpson, the Red River hunter, in winter, when the snow 

 was too deep to pursue them on horseback, approached the buffaloes by 

 crawling to them on the snow, disguised sometimes by a close dun-colored 

 cap, furnished with upright ears, to give him the appearance of a wolf, which, 

 through constant association, the buffaloes regard without dread. Towards 



* Red River Settlement, pp. 255- 557. 

 f MS. Notes, as previously cited. 



