welve buffaloes at one heat, but in the case before us, the
surface was rocky and full of badger holes. Twenty-three horses and
riders were at one moment all sprawling on the ground, one horse gored
by a bull, was killed on the spot, two more were disabled by the fall.
One rider broke his shoulder blade, another burst his gun, and lost
three fingers by the accident, another was struck on the knee by an
exhausted bull. In the evening no less than 1,375 tongues were brought
into camp. When the run is over the hunter's work is now retrograde. The
last animal killed is the first skinned, and night not unfrequently,
surprises the runner at his work. What then remains is lost and falls to
the wolves. Hundreds of dead buffaloes are often abandoned, for even a
thunderstorm, in one hour, will render the meat useless.

The day of a race is as fatiguing on the hunter as on the horse, but the
meat well in the camp, he enjoys the very luxury of idleness.

Then the task of the women begins, who do all the rest, and what with
skins, and meat and fat, their duty is a most laborious one.

It is to be regretted that much of the meat is wasted. Our expedition
killed not less than 2,500 buffaloes, and out of all these made 375 bags
of pemmican, and 240 bales of dried meat; 750 animals should have made
that amount, so that a great quantity was wasted. Of course, the buffalo
skins were saved and had their value.

Our party were now on the Missouri and encamped there. A few traders
went to the nearest American fort, and bartered furs for articles they
needed.

After passing a week on the banks of the Missouri we turned to the West,
when we had a few races with various success. We were afterwards led
backwards and forwards at the pleasure of the buffalo herds. They
crossed and recrossed our path until we had travelled to almost every
point of the compass.

Having had various altercations with the Indians, the party reached Red
River, bringing about 900 lbs. of buffalo meat in each cart, making more
than one million pounds in all. The Hudson's Bay Company took a
considerable amount of this, and the remainder went to supply the wants
of the Red River Settlement for another year.

CHAPTER XXII.

WHAT THE STARGAZERS SAW.

The writer remembers meeting in Boston, a good many years ago, a
scientific explorer, who along with two companies, one of whom is the
greatest astronomer in the United States, as an astronomical party in
1860,