6 AUDUBON 



immediately, and by some means did reach the top of the 

 hills, and went out of our sight; the four others ran, waded, 

 and swam at different places, always above us, trying to 

 make their escape. At one spot they attempted to climb 

 the bluff, having unconsciously passed the place where 

 their leader had made good his way, and in their attempts 

 to scramble up, tumbled down, and at last became so 

 much affrighted that they took to the river for good, with 

 the intention to swim to the shore they had left. Unfor- 

 tunately for them, we had been gaining upon them; we 

 had all been anxiously watching them, and the moment 

 they began to swim we were all about the boat with guns 

 and rifles, awaiting the instant when they would be close 

 under our bows. The moment came ; I was on the lower 

 deck among several of the people with guns, and the 

 firing was soon heavy ; but not one of the Buffaloes was 

 stopped, although every one must have been severely hit 

 and wounded. Bell shot a load of buckshot at the head of 

 one, which disappeared entirely under the water for per- 

 haps a minute. I sent a ball through the neck of the last 

 of the four, but all ineffectually, and off they went, swim- 

 ming to the opposite shore ; one lagged behind the rest, 

 but, having found footing on a sand-bar, it rested awhile, and 

 again swam off to rejoin its companions. They all reached 

 the shore, but were quite as badly off on that side as they 

 had been on the other, and their difficulties must have 

 been great indeed ; however, in a short time we had passed 

 them. Mr. Charles Primeau,^ who is a good shot, and who 

 killed the young Buffalo bull the other day, assured me 

 that it was his opinion the whole of these would die before 



1 Charles Primeau was born at St. Louis, Mo., entered the American 

 Fur Company as clerk, and continued in that service many years. Later he 

 helped to form an opposition company under the name of Harvey, Primeau, 

 & Co., which did business for a few years, until, like most of the smaller 

 concerns, it was absorbed by the American Fur Co. He then went back to 

 his former employers, and afterward was engaged by the U. S. Government 

 as Indian interpreter, long holding this position. In 1896 he was living in 

 the vicinity of Fort Yates. — E. C. 



