The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1860-08-25
A TRIP TO THE GREAT PAINS.
From Emporia to the Arkansas and Back
By J. y. WATsoa.
(Contingsd.)

selves out upon the grass. This is the
practice, as have observed, of all travel
ers on the prairie; the moment they stop,
they lay down. Whilst thus resting, and
waiting for the teams to come up, our MINI
rod continued to, enGghten me upon the
subject of buffalo hunting. '.Now the buff
| falo, said he, els curious animal. If
| the wind blows from you towards him, he
will smell you three miles of, and will make
tracks; but if the wind is from him TO-
wards you, you may walk right up to with
in half mile of him, and he will never
notice you, especially il you are dressed
right. He will be most apt to notice some-
thing white. black or red. You can always
hunt buffalo most successfully where the
country is broken; you can then crawl up
ravines. or around sand hills, and get close
to them but in level country it is pretty
| hard work. in a hot day. / get the wind
side of them, in such q place as this, and
walk straight towards them, until get to
within about half mile; then get down
on my hands and knees, and coon it along
till get within something less than quar-
ter of mile of them then lay fat down
on my belly aud crawl, reaching forwards
with my elbows, and pushing up with my
knees, somewhat like a frog swimming.
| -Afraid of rattlesnakes No, l often
come upon them |; but they are polite kind
of snake; they always give you warning
when you get within yard or so of them.
I just crawl around them and let them be.
In this way can get to within few rods
of herd Of buffalo, and am often enabled
to shoot eight or ten before they will STAN
pede. There is no certainty of getting a
| buffalo unless you are pretty near him when
you shoot; though said he was a mighty
big animal, yet the killing spot is not much
larger than my two hands. A lung shot
will do, if the ball is large; but to hit him
| in the heart, you should aim just behind
the fore shoulder, pretty low down; try to
take him when he is stepping forwards with
the leg next to you. The indians do nearly
all their hunting on horseback. They ride
right into herd, and dash along with it /;
select the buffalo they want, and kinder
work him cut from the others. and then they
will get round him and bring him close 10
their camp before they shoot him. The red
devils are mighty good shots. They gen.
orally bring him down the first crack, put
ting an arrow plum through his heart and
this is done whilst their horses are on full
run. I never try to kill buffalo on horse
back, unless I do it for sport; for you see
it's pretty dangerous kind of business
When you get into herd that way, you
have to dash right along with them, or they
will run over you and trample you TO death.
Some times when you are chasing bull,
he will dart as quick as lightning at your
horse, and if he hasn't been pretty well
trained, he is sure to be a gone sucker.
once saw buffalo bull toss a horse and
rider up into the air. and they landed more
| IL IL Ill, 81 H. ri h,0r I'll
fell out but che rider was more frightened
| than hurt. If the horse is used to it, he
will watch the buffalo and dodge him; but
/ you have got to watch your horse or the
| first thing you know you will be on the
broad of your back, and perhaps thousand
buffalo tramPling you to death. You see
I was riding full split at the head of herd
made sudden dart---but here comes the
wagons Now, boys, you just hold on
here whilst Simpson and file off to the
right, so as to get the wind of that herd,
and we will have some buffalo for supper
When was brought within discrimira
ting distance Of aherd of buffalo, confess
l was somewhat surprised and excited
They looked much larger than expected
they would. They seemed to be all in mo-
; tion-some chasing others, some paving
the ground, and some fighting. To me they
looked like herd of elephants; the below
ing made by these huge monsters was truly
terrific. Imagine the gurgliDg grunt OF ;
dying hog, the roar of an Infatuated lion
( and the believing of bull, all blended to-
gether, and swelled out to three times thei
natural volume, and you can form some ide;
of the noise made by herd of buffalo
, Our attention was directed towards couple
of bulls who were fighting most furiously
T Their heads in contact, and tails tossing de
= family in the air--now goring, now push
: ing, first one yielding to the impetuous fury
of his adversary and then the other, some
times tossing up the ground until they wer
e enveloped in cloud Of dust.
Our hunters, negleoting their usual eau
: ton, approached TOO near before commenc
r ing the crawling process, and were discov
e cred by the herd, which soon made glo
y ious stampede. Our belfgerent bulls wer
the last, however. to leave the ground.
We air moved on again. AS soon as
: had Joined our hunters, I was promotes
flor my exceeding good conduct in the lat
hunt) to the important post of guide, an
directed to steer to the left of that "solitar
tree" already spoken of. The hunters too
course little south of ours, with tn
understanding that if the: succeeded !
. killing a buffalo, they would signal US
come to them. rode back to the wagon
lie and informed the teamsters of this new ar
= rangement. Soon after this you might hay
seen me with an armful of long. white bone
y (buffalo ribs) which was to stick in th
ground when came to wet ravines, to in
dictate where the wagons should cross
believe it was that prince of wits, an
q wit of princes. the valiant and philosophi
D. cal Sir John Falstaf, who first discovere
ID the fact that there were three modes of al
6r irving at greatness. Some are born grea
d some acquire greatness, and others baS
: greatness thrust upon them. 1t became
question in my mind to which of thes
causes / owed my present elevated an
highly responsible situation. It was not IL
herited-I was not born a scout. that soc
u settled but whether it was the reward
some peculiar merit. or whether it bad bet
on thrust, noLeRs voEeRs, upon me, was a ma
ter could not so easily determine. Viii
copitatinr upon this grave problem, l VI