THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 479 



two rows gradually diverged until at their extremities they were from 

 1£ to 2 miles apart 



"When the skilled hunters are about to bring in a herd of buffalo 

 from the prairie," says Professor Hind, " they direct the course of the 

 gallop of the alarmed animals by confederates stationed in hollows or 

 small depressions, who, when the buffalo appear inclined to take a di- 

 rection leading from the space marked out by the { dead men,' show 

 themselves for a moment and wave their robes, immediately hiding 

 again. This serves to turn the buffalo slightly in another direction, and 

 when the animals, having arrived between the rows of ' dead men/ en- 

 deavor to pass through them, Indians stationed here and there behind 

 a ; dead man > go through the same operation, and thus keep the animals 

 within the narrowing limits of the converging lines. At the entrance 

 to the pound there is a strong trunk of a tree placed about a foot from 

 the ground, and on the inner side an excavation is made sufficiently 

 deep to prevent the buffalo from leaping back when once in the pound. 

 As soon as the animals have taken the fatal spring, they begin to 

 gallop round and round the ring fence, looking for a chance to escape, 

 but with the utmost silence women and children on the outside hold 

 their robes before every orifice until the whole herd is brought in ; then 

 they climb to the top of the fence, and, with the hunters who have fol- 

 lowed closely in the rear of the buffalo, spear or shoot with bows and 

 arrows or fire-arms at the bewildered animals, rapidly becoming frantic 

 with rage and terror, within the narrow limits of the pound. 



"A dreadful scene of confusion and slaughter then begins ; the oldest 

 and strongest animals crush and toss the weaker; the shouts and 

 screams of the excited Indians rise above the roaring of the bulls, the 

 ■ bellowing of the cows, and the piteous moaning of the calves. The 

 dying struggles of so many huge and powerful animals crowded together 

 create a revolting and terrible scene, dreadful from the excess of its 

 cruelty and waste of life, but with occasional displays of wonderful brute 

 strength and rage ; while man in his savage, untutored, and heathen 

 state shows both in deed and expression how little he is superior to the 

 noble beasts he so wantonly and cruelly destroys."* 



The last scene of the bloody tragedy is thus set forth a week later : 



u Within the circular fence * * * lay, tossed in every conceivable 

 position, over two hundred dead buffalo. [The exact number was 240.] 

 From old bulls to calves of three months' old, animals of every age were 

 huddled together in all the forced attitudes of violent death. Some lay 

 on their backs, with eyes starting from their heads and tongue thrust 

 out through clotted gore. Others were impaled on the horns of the old 

 and strong bulls. Others again, which had been tossed, were lying 

 with broken backs, two and three deep. One little calf hung suspended 

 on the horns of a bull which had impaled it in the wild race round and 

 round the pound. The Indians looked upon the dreadful and sickening 



*Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Expedition, p. 358. 



