Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1910-11-17
An OId-Time Buffalo Hunt.

During the middle of the last century
there lived on the plans OF the North
west, between the Red River OF the North
and the Rocky Mountains, an exceedingly
interesting group ofpeople-the Red River
alf-breeds. They were excellent hun
tiers. according to distinguished con-
tributor to Forest and Stream, splendid
plainsmen, and able to support themselves
and their families on the prairie by hunt
ing the buffalo. II was between 1850 and
1870 that the Red River half-breedS at
tanned their greatest fame as butfalo-hunt-
ers. Each spring they gathered at Fort
Garry, now Winnipeg, for their long
Journey across the plains, where they
killed great numbers OF buffalo, dried the
meat, and made pemmican for sale and
for winter subsistence. The women
dressed the hides, which were sold to
the Hudson Bay Company.
The cost of one OF these hunting trips,
in which fifteen or sixteen hundred per-
sons took part, was great-not less then
twenty-four thousand pounds or one hun
dred and twenty thousand dollars. The
grounds extended from the SaSk-
atchewan, on the north, southwark some
times as far as the Yellowstone River.
They followed the buffalo wherever they
were, and took with them their whole
families and all their worldly possessions,
transported in the famous Red River carts.
When the buffalo were found, if the
situation was favorable, surround"
was made. As the band OF hunters drew
near, the buffalo, with tails on end, rush
ed off in headlong flight. Presently the
swiftest horses began TO overtake them
and to disappear in the dust kicked upoy
the flying herd. The noise and confusion
caused by the running animals were as
tonishing. A thick cloud OF dust hung
over the scene, the air was full ofpebbleS
and sand, kicked up by the hurrying feet,
shots began to be heard, and presently
the prairie was strewn with brownbodies.
In such race the men rode their best
horses, trained buffalo-runnerS, as eX-
perienced as their masters in picking out
the best animals, in avoiding the holes
and obstacles which lay everywhere on
the prairie, in avoiding also the charge OF
angry animals that they overlook and
passed. Really, the experienced rider
paid no attention to his horse, and merely
loaded, fired and reloaded until the chase
was over.
Nearly all these men used muzzle-load-
ing flintlock guns. Their bullets were
carried in their mouths, the powder was
in a cowhorn hung under the right arm.
They loaded on the run, spat ball into
the muzzle, Jared the gun-stock against
the saddle or with the hand, threw some
printing into the pan and fired.
Accidents were frequent. Horses fell
or were caught by the buffalo and killed;
guns burst; sometimes men were shot.
BY bursting guns men lost hands, arms,
and sometimes even their lives, and In
dian hunters have told OF men falling from
their horses in such way that whip
stocks, arrows, bows and even guns were
driven through their bodies.
When the chase was ended, the hunters
returned over the buffalo-Strewn prairie
to identity the animals that each had Kill
led. This seems most perpleXing OPP
Grafton TO indoor people.
Imagine four hundred horSemen enter
ing at full speed herd ofSome thousands
of buffalo, all in rapid motion. Riders in
clouds of dust and volumes of smoke,
which darken the air, crossing and re-
crossing each other in every direction;
shots on the right on the left, behind,
before, here, there, two, three, dozen
at time, everywhere in close succession
or at the same moment.
Horses stumbling, riders falling, dead
and wounded animals tumbling here and
there, one over the other; and this zig
gag and bewildering melee continued for
an hour or more in wild confusion, and
yet, from practise, so keen was the eye,
so correct the judgment OF the hunter and
so discriminating his memory, that after
getting to the end of the race he could
not only tell the number of animals he
had shot down, but the position in which
each lay-on the right or the left side
the spot where the shot hit and the di-
rection of the ball, but also retrace his
way, step by step, through the whole
race, and recognize without the least hes
itation or difficulty every animal he had
the fortune to kill
A hunter was asked how it was posi-
Bile that each could know his own animals
in such a melange. He answered by
putting this question:
Suppose" said he, 'that four hum
dred learned persons all wrote words here
and there on the same sheet of paper,
would not each be able to point out his
own handwriting?"