THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 475 



siderable number, the half-breeds and Indians of the Manitoba Red 

 River settlement used to gather each year in a great army, and go with 

 carts to the buffalo range. On these great hunts, which took place 

 every year from about the 15th of June to the 1st of September, vast 

 numbers of buffalo were killed, and the supply was finally exhausted. 

 As if Heaven had decreed the extirpation of the species, the half-breed 

 hunters, like their white robe-hunting rivals farther south, always killed 

 cows in preference to bulls so long as a choice was possible, the very 

 course best calculated to exterminate any species in the shortest possi- 

 ble time. 



The army of half-breeds and Indians which annually went forth from 

 the Red River settlement to make war on the buffalo was often far larger 

 than the army with which Cortez subdued a great empire. As early 

 as 1846 it had become so great, that it was necessary to divide it into two 

 divisions, one of which, the White Horse Plain division, was accustomed 

 to go west by the Assinniboine River to the " rapids crossing-place," 

 and from there in a southwesterly direction. The Red River division 

 went south to Pembina, and did the most of their hunting in Dakota. 

 The two divisions sometimes met (says Professor Hind), but not inten- 

 tionally. In 1849 a Mr. Flett took a census of the White Horse Plain 

 division, in Dakota Territory, and found that it contained 603 carts, 

 700 half-breeds, 200 Indians, 600 horses, 200 oxen, 400 dogs, and 1 cat. 



In his " Red River Settlement " Mr. Alexander Ross gives the fol- 

 lowing census of the number of carts assembled in camp for the buffalo 

 hunt at five different periods : 



Number of carts assembled for the first trip. 



In 1820 540 



Inl825 680 



In 1830 820 



In 1835 970 



In 1840 1,210 



The expedition which was accompanied by Rev. Mr. Belcourt, a 

 Catholic priest, whose account is set forth in the Hon. Mr. Sibley's pa- 

 per on the buffalo,* was a comparatively small one, which started from 

 Pembina, and very generously took pains not to spoil the prospects of 

 the great Red River division, which was expected to take the field at 

 the same time. This, therefore, was a small party, like others which 

 had already reached the range ; but it contained 213 carts, 55 hunters 

 and their families, making 60 lodges in all. This party killed 1,776 

 cows (bulls not counted, many of which were killed, though " not even 

 a tongue was taken"), which yielded 228 bags of pemmican, 1,213 bales 

 of dried meat, 166 sacks of tallow, and 556 bladders full of marrow. 

 But this was very moderate slaughter, being about 33 buffalo to each 

 family. Even as late as 1872, when buffalo were getting scarce, Mr. 



* Schoolcraft, pp. 101-110. 



