![[A Buffalo Hunt]](../../gif/jmeek/fig13.jpg)
"Waal, there is a good deal of sport in runnin' buffalo. When the camp discovered a
band, then every man that wanted to run, made haste to catch his buffalo horse. We
sometimes went out thirty or forty strong; sometimes two or three, and at other times a
large party started on the hunt; the more the merrier. We always had great bantering
about our horses, each man, according to his own account, having the best one.
"When we first start we ride slow, so as not to alarm the buffalo. The nearer we come to
the band the greater our excitement. The horses seem to feel it too, and are worrying to
be off. When we come so near that the band starts, then the word is given, our horses'
mettle is up, and away we go!
"Thar may be ten thousand in a band. Directly we crowd them so close that nothing can
be seen but dust, nor anything heard but the roar of their trampling and bellowing. The
hunter now keeps close on their heels to escape being blinded by the dust, which does
not rise as high as a man on horseback, for thirty yards behind the animals. As soon as
we are close enough the firing begins, and the band is on the run; and a herd of buffalo
can run about as fast as a good race-horse. How they do thunder along! They give us a
pretty sharp race. Take care! Down goes a rider, and away goes his horse with the
band. Do you think we stopped to look after the fallen man? Not we. We rather thought
that war fun, and if he got killed, why, ' he war unlucky, that war all. Plenty more men:
couldn't bother about him.'
"Thar's a fat cow ahead. I force my way through the band to come up with her. The
buffalo crowd around so that I have to put my foot on them, now on one side, now the
other, to keep them off my horse. It is lively work, I can tell you. A man has to look
sharp not to be run down by the band pressing him on; buffalo and horse at the top of
their speed.
"Look out; thar's a ravine ahead, as you can see by the plunge which the band makes.
Hold up! or somebody goes to the d--l now. If the band is large it fills the ravine full to
the brim, and the hindmost of the herd pass over on top of the foremost. It requires
horsemanship not to be carried over without our own consent; but then we mountain-men are all
good horsemen. Over the ravine we go; but we do it our own way.
"We keep up the chase for about four miles, selecting our game as we run, and killing a
number of fat cows to each man; some more and some less. When our horses are tired
we slacken up, and turn back. We meet the camp keepers with pack-horses. They soon
butcher, pack up the meat, and we all return to camp, whar we laugh at each other's
mishaps, and eat fat meat: and this constitutes the glory of mountain life."
"But you were going to tell me about the buffalo hunt at Missouri Lake?''
"Thar isn't much to tell. It war pretty much like other buffalo hunts. Thar war a lot of us
trappers happened to be at a Nez Perce and Flathead village in the fall of '38, when
they war agoin' to kill winter meat; and as their hunt lay in the direction we war going,
we joined in. The old Nez Perce chief, Kow-e-so-te had command of the village, and we
trappers had to obey him, too.
"We started off slow; nobody war allowed to go ahead of camp. In this manner we
caused the buffalo to move on before us, but not to be alarmed. We war eight or ten
days traveling from the Beaver-head to Missouri Lake, and by the time we got thar, the
whole plain around the lake war crowded with buffalo, and it war a splendid sight!
"In the morning the old chief harangued the men of his village, and ordered us all to get
ready for the surround. About nine o'clock every man war mounted, and we began to
move.
"That war a sight to make a man's blood warm! A thousand men, all trained hunters, on
horseback, carrying their guns, and with their horses painted in the height of Indians'
fashion. We advanced until within about half a mile of the herd; then the chief ordered
us to deploy to the right and left, until the wings of the column extended a long way,
and advance again.
"By this time the buffalo war all moving, and we had come to within a hundred yards of
them. Kow-e-so-te then gave us the word, and away we went, pell-mell. Heavens, what
a charge! What a rushing and roaring--men shooting, buffalo bellowing and trampling
until the earth shook under them!
"It war the work of half an hour to slay two thousand or may be three thousand animals.
When the work was over, we took a view of the field. Here and there and everywhere,
laid the slain buffalo. Occasionally a horse with a broken leg war seen; or a man with a
broken arm; or maybe he had fared worse, and had a broken head.
"Now came out the women of the village to help us butcher and pack up the meat. It
war a big job; but we war not long about it. By night the camp war full of meat, and
everybody merry. Bridger's camp, which war passing that way, traded with the village
for fifteen hundred buffalo tongues--the tongue being reckoned a choice part of the
animal. And that's the way we helped the Nez Perces hunt buffalo."
"But when you were hunting for your own subsistence in camp, you sometimes went out
in small parties ?"
"Oh yes, it war the same thing on a smaller scale. One time Kit Carson and myself, and
a little Frenchman, named Marteau, went to run buffalo on Powder River. When we
came in sight of the band it war agreed that Kit and the Frenchman should do the
running, and I should stay with the pack animals. The weather war very cold and I didn't
like my part of the duty much.
"The Frenchman's horse couldn't run; so I lent him mine. Kit rode his own; not a good
buffalo horse either. In running, my horse fell with the Frenchman, and nearly killed
him. Kit, who couldn't make his horse catch, jumped off, and caught mine, and tried it
again. This time he came up with the band, and killed four fat cows.
"When I came up with the pack-animals, I asked Kit how he came by my horse. He
explained, and wanted to know if I had seen anything of Marteau: said my horse had
fallen with him, and he thought killed him. 'You go over the other side of yon hill, and
see,' said Kit.
"What'll I do with him if he is dead ?" said I.
"Can't you pack him to camp ?"
"Pack h--l" said I; " I should rather pack a load of meat. "
"Waal," said Kit, " I'll butcher, if you'll go over and see, anyhow."
"So I went over, and found the dead man leaning his head on his hand, and groaning;
for he war pretty bad hurt. I got him on his horse, though, after a while, and took him
back to whar Kit war at work. We soon finished the butchering job, and started back to
camp with our wounded Frenchman, and three loads of fat meat."
"You were not very compassionate toward each other, in the mountains?"
"That war not our business. We had no time for such things. Besides, live men war what we wanted; dead ones war of no account."