"Tell me all about a buffalo hunt," said the writer to Joe Meek, as we
sat at a window overlooking the Columbia River, where it has a beautiful
stretch of broad waters and curving wooded shores, and talking about
mountain life, "tell me how you used to hunt buffalo."
"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 alway 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!
[Illustration: _A BUFFALO HUNT._]
"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 ----" 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."