The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1890-01-02
TILLSON G SCHMIDT, Agents.
Buffalo-Hunting in 1877.

When camp was pitched the horses
were turned loose to Craze and refresh
themselves after their trying journey,
during which they had lost flesh woful.
ly. They We're watched and tended by
the two men who were always left in
camp, and, save on rare occasions, the
horses were only used to haul in the
buffalo-hides. The camp-guards for
the time being acted as cooks; and,
though coffee and flour both ran short
and finally gave out, fresh meat of
every kind was abundant. The camp
was never without buffalo beef deer
and antelope venison, wild turkeys,
prairie-chickens. quails. ducks. and rab-
bits. The birds were simply 'pott-.d :,
as occasion required: when ..ne ouarrv
was deer OF antelope, the hunters took
he dogs with them to run down the
wounded animals. But almost the en-.
tire attention of the hunters was given
to the buffalo, After an evening spent
IN lounglng round the campfire, and a
sound nights sleep, wrapped in robes
and blankets, they would get up before
day snatch hurried breakfast,
and start off in couples through the
chilly dawn. The great beasts were
very plentiful; in the first days hunt,
twenty were slain; but the herds were
restless and ever on the move Some.
times they would he seen by the camp,
and again 1t would need an all-dav's
tramp to find them. There was no diff
flculty in spying them = the chief
trouble with forest game; for on the
prairie a buffalo makes no effort to
hide, and its black. shaggy bulk looms
up as far as the eye can see. Some
times they were found in small parties
of three Or four individuals, sometimes
in bands of about two hundred and
again in great herds of many thous-
and; and solitary old bulls. expelled
from the herds, were common. If on
broken land, among hills and ravines,
there was not much difficulty in ap-
preaching from the leeward for, though
the sense of smell in the buffalo is very
acute, they do not see we'll at a distance
through their overhanging frontlets of
coarse and matted hair. If, as was
generally the case, they were ont on
the open rolling prairie, the stalking
was far more difficult Every hollow,
every earth hummock and .sagebush
had to be used as cover. The hunter
wriggled through the grass fat on his
face, pushing himself along for per-
haps quarter Of a mile by his foes and
fingers. needless of the spiny cactus.
When near enough to the huge, uncon.
scious quarry the hunter began firing,
still keeping himself carefully con.
ceaiel. Ii the smoke was blown away
by the wind. and If the bufaloes caught
no glimpse of the assailant, they would
often stand motionless and stupid until
many of their number had been slain:
the hunter being careful not to fire toe
high, aiming just behind the shoulder,
about a third of the way up the body,
that his bullet might go through fhe
lungs. Sometimes. even after they saw
the man. they would act as if confused
and panic-struck, huddling up together
and staring at the smoke putfs-but
generally they were off at numbering
gallop as soon as they had an idea OF
the point of danger. When once start
ed. they ran for many miles before
halting, and their pursuit on foot was
extremely laborious. Theodore Roose.
Ueit, IN st. Nicholas