gements for the night being completed, guards are
appointed to watch over the safety of the camp, who are relieved
at fixed hours. In this manner they proceed until they approach the
buffalo grounds, when scouts are sent out to ascertain the spot where
the herd may be found. The joyful discovery being made, the scouts
apprise the main body by galloping backwards and forwards, when a halt
is immediately ordered. The camp is pitched; the hunters mount their
runners; and the whole being formed into an extended line, with the
utmost regularity, they set forward at a hand gallop; not a soul
advances an inch in front of the line, until within gun-shot of the
herd, when they rein up for a moment. The whole body then, as if with
one voice, shout the war whoop, and rush on the herd at full gallop;
each hunter, singling out an animal, pursues it until he finds an
opportunity of taking sure aim; the animal being dispatched, some
article is dropped upon it that can be afterwards recognised. The
hunter immediately sets off in chase of another, priming, loading, and
taking aim at full speed. A first-rate runner not unfrequently secures
ten buffaloes at a "course;" from four to eight is the usual number.
He who draws the first blood claims the animal, and each individual
hunter is allowed whatever he kills.

The moment the firing commences, the women set out with the carts, and
cut up and convey the meat to the camp; where it is dried by means of
bones and fat. Two or three days are required for the operation, when
they set out again; and the same herd, perhaps, yields a sufficient
quantity to load all the carts, each carrying about one thousand
pounds,--an enormous quantity in the aggregate; yet the herd is
sometimes so numerous that all this slaughter does not seem to
diminish it.

The buffalo hunt affords much of the excitement, and some of the
dangers, of the battle-field. The horses are often gored by the
infuriated bulls, to the great peril--sometimes to the loss--of the
rider's life; serious accidents too happen from falls. There are no
better horsemen in the world than the Red River "brules;" and so long
as the horse keeps on his legs, the rider sticks to him. The falls
are chiefly occasioned by the deep holes the badger digs all over the
prairies; if the horse plunges into one of these, both horse and man
roll on the ground. Fatal accidents, also, occasionally happen from
gun shots in the _melee_; and it is said, I know not