358 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



diverging rows, the bushes they designate " dead men," 

 and which serve to guide the buffalo when at full speed, 

 were arranged. The " dead men " extended a distance of 

 four miles into the prairie, west of and beyond the Sand 

 Hills. They were placed about 50 feet apart, and 

 between the extremity of the rows might be a distance 

 of from one and a half to two miles. 



When the skilled hunters are about to bring in a herd 

 of buffalo from the prairie, 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 direction 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 direc- 

 tion, and when the animals, having arrived between the 

 rows of "dead men," endeavour to pass through them, 

 Indians here and there stationed 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 one foot from the ground, and on the 

 inner side an excavation is made sufficiently deep to pre- 

 vent 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 of 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 ; they then climb to the top of the fence, and, with the 

 hunters who have followed 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. 



