58 
herd after him. The yoiinj*; men in the rear now discover themselves, 
and drive the herd on with all possible speed. There is always a 
sentinel on some elevated spot to notify the cami) when the buffalo 
appear; and this intelligence is no sooner given than every man. 
woman, and child runs to the ranges that lead to the pound, to pre- 
vent the buffalo from taking a wrong direction, d'here they lie down 
between fascines and cross-sticks, and if the buffalo attempt to break 
through, the people wave their robes, which causes the herd to keep 
on, or turn to the opposite side, where other persons do the same. 
When the buffalo have been thus directed to the entrance of the 
pound, the Indian who leads them rushes into it and out at the other 
side, either by jumping over the inclosure or creeping through an 
opening left for that purpose. The buffalo tumble in pell-mell at his 
heels, almost exhausted, but keep moving around the inclosure from 
east to west, and never in a direction against the sun. What appeared 
extraordinarv to me, on those occasions, was that when word was 
given to the camp of the near approach of the buffalo, the dogs would 
skulk away from the pound, and not approach until the herd entered. 
Many buffaloes break their legs, and some their necks, in jumping into 
the pound, as the descent is generally six or eight feet and stumps 
are left standing there. The buffalo being caught, the men assemble 
at the inclosure, armed with bows and arrows; every arrow has a 
j)articular mark of the owner, and they fly until the whole herd is 
killed.”! 
Buffalo were occasionally driven over precipices instead of into 
a pound; and their bones may still be recovererl in large numbers 
from certain ravines on the prairies.- The northern Indians, who 
saw no buffalo, but who impounded caribou during the winter months, 
often set hedges and snares inside their enclosures, which were built 
only of saplings and brush. In .summer they adopted the same meth- 
ods as the Eskimo, forcing the caribou into lakes and rivers to spear 
them from canoes, or else driving them against a line of archers con- 
cealed in shallow pits.^ The Nootka Indians similarly drove the 
1 Henry and Tliornpson: Op. fit., vol. il, p. 517. Cf. “Life, Letters and Travel.s of Father Pierre- 
.lean lie Sinet’'; edited by Chitteriflen. H. M., and Hichardson, .V T., vol, iii, pp. 1027 ff (New York. 
1905); and, for buffalo drives amonc tlie Cree, Franklin, J. : "Narrative of a Jonrney to the Shores 
of th<‘ Polar Sea," p 112 f (l.nndon, 1S23) ; and Hind, 11. Y. : North-West d'erritory Reports of Progress, 
together with a preliminary and general report on the Assiniboine and .Sa.skatchewan exploring expedi- 
tion, pp. .55-.56 (Toronto, i859). 
2 .4t the close of the late war (in 1910 and 1020) the Sareee Indians near Calgarx' gathered and .sold 
for fertilizer all the buffalo bones that lay at fbe bottom of a narrow ravine on their reserve. 
3 Mackenzie; Op. cit., p. exxv; Hearne: Op. cit., pp. 120-309; Jenness: Op. cit., pp. 148 ff. 
