Volume III. 



RECREATION. 



AUGUST, 1895. 



G. O. SHIELDS (COQUINA), Editor and Manager. 



Number 2. 



The American News Co., Agents for the U. S. and Canada. The International News Co., General Agents for Europe. 

 Offices: Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, E. C, England ; Stephanstrasse 18, Leipsig, Germany. 



CROSSING THE ROCKIES IN '61. 



Maj. W. H. Schieffelin. 



Continued from page 21. 



One day we saw, about five miles 

 back from the trail, a large black 

 animal moving slowly. The men 

 said, " bear or buffalo." I was riding a 

 good horse and at once went after the 

 game. He soon took me to it. It 

 proved to be a big buffalo bull. He of 

 course stampeded when he saw me 

 coming, but my horse soon put me along- 

 side the great brute and kept me there 

 until I emptied my revolver in his 

 shoulder. Thanks to the horse, I got 

 my first buffalo bull without any assist- 

 ance from any one. While I was cutting 

 out his tongue, Mr. Cary came up and 

 made a sketch of him. He was a fine 

 old bison, but tough, and made no ob- 

 jection to being killed. Many of the 

 old bulls turn and fight furiously when 

 wounded, but this one seemed to have 

 lost his combative spirit, if he had ever 

 had any. 



Buffalo were abundant all along the 

 upper river. At times the plains were 

 covered with them as far as the eye 

 could reach. 



One morning when we awakened we 

 saw what seemed to be millions of buf- 

 falo, and as we were short of meat, pre- 

 pared for a run. About ten of us 

 mounted for the fray. In order to be 

 successful, we were advised to go as 

 light as possible ; so most of us wore no 

 coats. Some had handkerchiefs around 

 their heads, instead of hats ; light pads, 

 with stirrups in place of saddles and 

 most of us carried revolvers. I had 

 two. We were told to obey the orders 

 of our half-breed leader and not to 

 charge until he told us, but then to go 

 as fast as we could. We cantered up to 

 within 200 feet of them, before they 

 commenced to move, when he gave the 

 word " charge." We rushed in, and the 

 whole herd started and turned by the 



left flank, so that we were immediately 

 in the midst of them. We had been 

 told to select the fat cows. The race 

 was awfully exciting. I rode beside a 

 fine looking cow — being jostled and 

 rubbed against by the other buffaloes — 

 and shot her three times, behind the 

 shoulder, before she left the herd. I 

 passed on and selected another and 

 fired three or four shots at her when 

 she too dropped out. So I kept on 

 until I had emptied both my revolvers 

 when I turned back to finish those I 

 had wounded. We found some 20 buf- 

 faloes, either killed or fatally wounded. 

 We had a great feast that day, and all 

 agreed that a fat buffalo cow's rib was 

 the best meat in the world. 

 * * * 



Finally, after many days of slow but 

 interesting travel, with the ox train, we 

 reached Fort Benton, the head of navi- 

 gation on the upper Missouri. We were 

 hospitably entertained by the post 

 trader and Indian agent, and greatly en- 

 joyed a two weeks' rest. 



They had some good horses at the 

 post and a race course, four miles long 

 and as level as a floor. It encircled a 

 hill from which a fine view of the races 

 could be had, from start to finish. 

 Several races were run, for our enter- 

 tainment, between Indians and whites. 

 The eastern bred horses were better, 

 however, than the Indian ponies, and 

 nearly all the races were won by the 

 whites. 



While at the Fort I became intimately 

 acquainted with " Little Dog " or " Imi- 

 taque," a Blackfoot chief and a good 

 man, when sober, but he had the bad 

 habit of getting drunk and then always 

 wanted to kill somebody. A short time 

 before our arrival, he had killed one of 

 his best friends in a drunken brawl ; but 



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