356 ASSIXNIBOIXE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



and smoked, until they thought it time for us to accom- 

 pany them to their encampment. Mis-tick-oos had hurried 

 away to make preparations for " bringing in the buffalo,"* 

 the new pound being nearly ready. He expressed, through 

 his son, a wish- that we should see them entrap the buffalo 

 in this pound, a rare opportunity few would be willing 

 to lose. 



We passed through the camp to a place which the 

 chief's son pointed out, and there erected our tents. The 

 women were still employed in moving the camp, being 

 assisted in the operation by large numbers of dogs, each 

 dog having two poles harnessed to him, on which his little 

 load of meat, pemmican, or camp furniture was laid. 

 After another smoke, the chiefs son asked me, through 

 the interpreter, if I would like to see the old buffalo 

 pound, in which they had been entrapping buffalo during 

 the past week. With a ready compliance I accompanied 

 the guide to a little valley between sand hills, through a 

 lane of branches of trees, which are called " dead men" 

 to the gate or trap of the pound. A sight most horrible 

 and disgusting broke upon us as we: ascended a sand 

 dune overhanging the little dell in which the pound was 

 built. Within a circular fence 120 feet broad, con- 

 structed of the trunks of trees, laced with wdthes together, 

 and braced by outside supports, lay tossed in every con- 

 ceivable position over two hundred dead buffalo. 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 start- 

 ing from their heads, and tongue thrust out through 

 clotted gore. Others were impaled on the horns of the 



* A half-breed expression signifying "to drive the buffalo from the 

 Prairie towards and into the pound/' or Ponds, as they are termed in half- 

 breed phraseology. 



