Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1910-12-07
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IL AN OLD-TIME BUFFALO j.
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there lived on the plains of the North
west, between the Red River on the
north and the Rocky Mountains. an ex-
ceedingly interesting group of people
Red River half breeds. They were ex-
cellent hunters, according to distin-
guished contributor to Forest and
Stream, splendid plainsmen, and able to
support themselves and their families
on the prairie by hunting the buffalo.
1t was between 1850 and 1870 that the
Red River half-breeds attained their
greatest fame rs buffalo hunters. 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 than
twenty-four thousand pounds or one
hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
The hunting-grounds extended from
the Saskatchewan, on the north, south
ward sometimes as far as the Yellow
stone 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, Il Surround"
was made. AS the batch of hunters
drew near, the buffalo, with tails on end
rushed off in hendlong flight. Present.
ly the swiftest horses began to over
take them and to disappear in the
dust kicked up by the flying herd.
The noise and confusion caused by
the running animals was astonishing.
thick cloud Of dust hung over the
scene, the air was full of pebbles and
sand, kicked up by the hurryint, feet,
shots began TO be heard, and present.
ly the prairie was strewn with brown
bodies.
In such race the men rode their
best horses, trained buffalo runners,
as experienced 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 pass
ed. 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-
loading lint-lock guns Their bul-
lets were carried in their mouths, the
powder was in a cow-horn hung un-
der the right arm. They loaded on
Jared the gun-stock against the
saddle or with the hand, threw some
priming into the pan and fred.
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 Indian hunters have
told Of men falling from their horses
In such way that whip-stocks, ar
rows, bows and even guns were
driven through their bodies.
When the chase was ended, the
hunters returned over the buffalo
strewn prairie to identify the ami
mails that each had killed. This seems
most perplexing operation to in
door people.
Imagine four hundred horsemen
entering at full speed herd Of some
thousands Of buffalo, all in rapid
motion. Riders in clouds OF dust and
volumes Of smoke, which darken the
air, crossing and rccrossing each
other In every directions; shots on
the right, on the left, behind, before,
here, there, two, three, a 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 zigzag and bewildering
melee continued for an hour or more
In wild confusion, and yet, from
practice, so keen was the eye, so cor
rect 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
wight or the left sidn-the ahot