112 ASSINNIBOINE- AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



by night attacks of the Sioux or other Indian tribes at 

 war with the half-breeds. A heavy fine is imposed in 

 case of neglect in extinguishing fires when the camp is 

 broken up in the morning. In sight of buffalo, all the 

 hunters are drawn up in line, the president, captains, and 

 police being a few yards in advance, restraining the im- 

 patient hunters. Not yet, not yet, is the subdued 

 whisper of the president ; the approach to the herd is 

 cautiously made. Now ! the president exclaims, and as 

 the word leaves his lips the charge is made, and in a few 

 minutes the excited half-breeds are among the bewildered 

 buffalo. 



Blind buffalo are frequently found accompanying herds, 

 and sometimes they are met with alone. Their eyes have 

 been destroyed by prairie fires ; but their quickened sense 

 of hearing and smell, and their increased alertness enable 

 them to guard against danger, and makes it more difficult 

 to approach them in quiet weather than those possessing 

 sight. The hunters think that blind buffalo frequently 

 give the alarm when they are stealthily approaching a 

 herd in an undulating country. When galloping over 

 stony ground blind buffalo frequently fall, but when quietly 

 feeding they avoid the stones and boulders with wonder- 

 ful skill. The domestication of the buffalo is a subject of 

 much interest to the future population of Eed Eiver, and 

 the following information on that subject may be im- 

 plicitly relied on. 



Humboldt* says that Albert Gallatin, who, before he 

 appeared in Europe as a distinguished diplomatist, had 

 obtained by personal inspection great knowledge of the 

 uncultivated part of the United States, assures us that 

 " the mixed breed was quite common fifty years ago in 

 some of the north-western counties of Virginia ; and the 



* Aspects of Nature. 



