470 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



Colonel Dodge once counted one hundred and twelve carcasses of buffalo 

 "inside of a semicircle of 200 yards radius, all of which were killed by 

 one man from the same spot, and in less than three-quarters of an hour." 

 The "kill" being completed, the hunter then addressed himself to the 

 task of skinning his victims. The northern hunters were seldom guilty 

 of the reckless carelessness and lack of enterprise in the treatment ef 

 robes which at one time was so prominent a feature of work on the 

 southern range. By the time white men began to hunt for robes on the 

 northern range, buffalo were becoming comparatively scarce, and robes 

 were worth from $2 to $4 each. The fur-buyers had taught the hunters, 

 with the potent argument of hard cash, that a robe carefully and neatly 

 taken off, stretched, and kept reasonably free from blood and dirt, was 

 worth more money in the market than one taken off in a slovenly man- 

 ner, and contrary to the nicer demands of the trade. After 1880, buffalo 

 on the northern range were skinned with considerable care, and amongst 

 the robe-hunters not one was allowed to become a loss when it was 

 possible to prevent it. Every full-sized cow robe was considered equal 

 to $3.50 in hard cash, and treated accordingly. The hunter, or skinner, 

 always stretched every robe out on the ground to its fullest extent 

 while it was yet warm, and cut the initials of his employer in the thin 

 subcutaneous muscle which always adhered to the inside of the skin. 

 A warm skin is very elastic, and when stretched upon the ground the 

 hair holds it in shape until it either dries or freezes, and so retains its 

 full size. On the northern range skins were so valuable that many a 

 dispute arose between rival outfits over the ownership of a dead buf- 

 falo, some of which produced serious results. 



2. The chase on horseback or " running buffalo." — Next to the still-hunt 

 the method called "running buffalo" was the most fatal to the race, and 

 the one most universally practiced. To all hunters, save greedy white 

 men, the chase on horseback yielded spoil sufficient for every need, and 

 it also furnished sport of a superior kind — manly, exhilarating, and well 

 spiced with danger. Even the horses shared the excitement and eager- 

 .ness of their riders. 



So long as the weapons of the Indian consisted only of the bow and 

 arrow and the spear, he was obliged to kill at close quarters or not at 

 all. And even when fire-arms were first placed in his hands their cali- 

 ber was so small, the charge so light, and the Indian himself so poor a 

 marksman at long range, that his best course was still to gallop along- 

 side the herd on his favorite "buffalo horse" and kill at the shortest 

 possible range. From all accounts, the Red River half-breeds, who 

 hunted almost exclusively with fire-arms, never dreamed of the deadly 

 still hunt, but always killed their game by "running" it. 



In former times even the white men of the plains did the most of 

 their buffalo hunting on horseback, using the largest-sized Colt's re- 

 volver, sometimes one in each hand, until the repeating- rifle made its 



