San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-06-29

their dying companions. ne theh hfo'
away rapidly, perhaps getting In q
dozen effective shots before the huddie
of animals breaks up and the beasts
begin to run to and fro in n fury OF rage
and fear. Before they find new
leader and stampede from the fatal spot
he will probably down" twenty OF
thirty of them. He rides back to camp
to bring up the wagons and the skin
hers, takes note of the direction the
herd has pursued, and the next day is
on their track again. 1t is not uncom-
mon for single hunter to kill 800 buff
falo in a few weeks. One can see what
devastation a few hunting parties will
make in single month among the few
remaining herds.
.. THE INDIAN METHOD.
The Indians method of killing buff
falo is much more exciting and spec
tacular, but much less destructive. A
civil engineer engaged in the railroad
construction work, at whose camp I
stopped q few nights ago, gave me an
account of an Indian hunt he witnessed
from the door of his own log cabin one
day last winter. 1t was the great an
nual hunt of the Grows. The Indians
had had their scouts out for weeks in
the region north of the Yellowstone,
raassing the small scattered herds into
one large body, by method similar to
that used in rounding up cattle. Hav-
ing got together herd of perhaps 5000
they began to push them forward
slowly toward the Yellowstone Valley,
not stampeding the animals, but form
ing a semi-circle of horsemen around
nearly twenty miles of country, and
showing themselves here and there to
keep the animals from straying off and
move them forward in the right direc-
ton. Couriers were sent to the Grow
village, and soon the whole tribe wasin
motion for a small piece of bottom land
on the river, half surrounded by an
ampitheater of hills. Beyond the h
tops the squaws, children and old men
were stationed, with some of the ponies
and with red blankets. The most skill
full hunters posted themselves, mounted
by the river side. About noon the
great herd, urged on by the scouts,
came laundering down the hills into
the bottom. Then the people on the
hills closed up the line behind them
and the hunters dashed into the herd
and began the slaughter. Whenever
the animals would stampede toward the
hills they would be driven back by the
squaws waving the red blankets. The
hunters rode to and fro, with wonderful
skill evading the charges of wounded
bulls and carrying on the slaughter
with little more trouble than they would
have had in drove of cattle. When
their ponies were exhausted they rode
up the hills and got fresh ones from
the squaws. After two or three hours
of this kind of work, the chief gave
signal, the line on the hills opened a
gap and the survivors Of the herd were
allowed to escape. About 500 animals
were killed in all. The tepees were set
up and the village Toasted for month,
while the squaws skinned the dead
beasts, tanned the hides and dried the
meat.
THE BUFFALO MUST GO.
feel no sympathy with the senti
that laments the rapid exter-
mination of the buffalo. A good, fat
OK is much more valuable animal any
day than the biggest buffalo bull. The
pastures which now support 100000
to 100000 head of buffalo will support
an equal number of cattle. which, as
better friends of man, have better
right to them than the ugly wild beast
that has little to give us worth having !
besides his skin. His meat, can at
est, is vastly inferior to an ordinary
roast or steak. Let the buffalo go-the
'aster the better-and let the grassy !
nils and plains Of Montana and Wyo- {
ming be covered With herds of good, ,
honest, civilized cattle. When the buf- ,
alo disappears, Indian savagery will {
disappear, too. The Indian will have G
o lay down the rifle and take up the 6
,low, He will never work as long as ,