90 THE FORMER RANGE OF THE BUFFALO. 
the skill with which they were used. ‘‘ Arrows are the princip 
arms which they (Illinois Indians) use in war and in the a 
They are pointed at the end with a stone cut and sharpened in thi 
shape of a serpent’s tongue; and if no knife is at hand, they 
them also to skin the animals they have killed. They are so 
ful in using the bow, they scarcely ever fail in their aim, and 
The Indians on the lower Mississippi shot an arrow 
through the horse of De Soto, and it is said that the modern 
dians on the plains, think it no unusual feat to send an a 
through a buffalo, so that it falls on the ground upon the 
side, and this was doubtless done often by the Indians of 
olden time upon our prairies. 
Some of the descriptions given by the Jesuits of our vast 
ries, with herds of buffalo and other animals grazing upon t 
are charming indeed. Father Rasles in his letter above quote 
speaks of vast herds of buffaloes and roebucks, and says, “ 
not a single year passes but they kill more than a thousand 
bucks and more than.two thousand buffaloes. From four to 
thousand of the latter can often be scen at one view grazing 
the prairies.” ` 
“Of all the nations of Canada, there are none who live: 
great abundance of everything as the Illinois. Their riv 
covered with swans, bustards, ducks and teals. One can § 
travel a league without finding a prodigious multitude of 
who keep together in flocks, often to the number of basis 
dred.” : : 
Father Hennepin also speaks of herds of buffalo, grazing be 
* Early Jesuit Missions Kip. ine 
“t Lewis and Clark in deca the Missouri in 1896, on pase 
- upon White River, estimated that they saw twenty thousand on the Pr 
_ time.” Schoolcraft, Hist. Cond. Prospects, ete., Vol. 4, p- 98. 
the 
the 
of the American Fur Company, who, while he was travelling from oath 
Mandan nation in the month of August in a cart heavily con yaa 
p 
Bachman, 
ther.” Quadrupeds of North A a a nice E E vast num 
111056 
oes that formerly roamed over the prairies of Illinois. 
$ Kip. Early Jesuit Missions, p. 39. 
