OUT ON THE PLAINS—BUFFALO STAMPEDE.
The buffalo trails generally followed the water courses or paralleled
them, while again they would lead across the country with scarcely
any deviation from a direct course. When on the road a herd would
persistently follow their leader, whether in the wild tumult of a
stampede or the more leisurely grazing as they traveled.
However, for nearly a thousand miles a goodly supply of fresh meat was
obtainable from the adventurous hunters, who in spite of the appalling
calamity that had overtaken the moving column of the emigrants would
venture out on the chase, the temptation being too great to restrain
their ardor.
A story is told, and it is doubtless true, of a chase on the upper
regions of the Missouri, where the leaders, either voluntarily or
by pressure from the mass behind, leaped to their death over a
perpendicular bluff a hundred feet high overlooking the river, followed
blindly by the herd until not only hundreds but thousands lay at the
foot struggling in inextricable confusion, piling one upon another till
the space between the river and the bluff was bridged and the belated
victims plunged headlong into the river.
Well up the Platte but below Fort Laramie, we had the experience of a
night stampede that struck terror to the very vitals of man and beast.
It so happened that evening we had brought our cattle into camp, a
thing we did not usually do. We had driven the wagons into a circle
with the tongue of one wagon chained to the hind axle tree of the one
in front, with the cattle inside the circle and the tents outside. I
slept in the wagon that night, which was not often, for usually I would
be out on the range with the oxen, and if I slept at all, snugged up
close to Dandy's back. My partner, William Buck, was in the tent nearby
and sleeping on the ground, likewise brother Oliver.
We first heard the approaching storm, but almost instantly every animal
in the corral was on his feet. Just then the alarm was given and all
hands turned out, not yet knowing what caused the general commotion. A
roar like an approaching storm could be heard in the distance. We can
liken it to the roar of a heavy railroad train on a still night passing
at no great distance. As by instinct all suddenly seemed to know what
was approaching, the tents were emptied of their inmates, the weak
parts of the corral guarded, the frightened cattle looked after, and
everyone in the camp was on the alert to watch what was coming.
In the darkness of the night we could soon see the form of the foremost
leader and then such dense masses that one could not distinguish one
from the other. How long they were passing we forgot to note; it
seemed like an age. When daylight came a few stragglers were yet to
be seen and fell under the unerring aim of the frontier-man's rifle.
Our neighbors in camp did not escape loss. Some were detained for days
gathering up their scattered stock, while again others were unable
to find them, and lost their teams, or a part of them, and never did
recover them.
At times when not on the road, the buffalo were shy, difficult to
approach and hard to bag, even with the long range rifles of the
pioneers.