Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/437

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NATIVE BUFFALO HUNTERS.
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from his prey; and some are said to be so dexterous in this mode of approach as actually to drive aside with their guns the old bulls, who form the outer guard of the band, in order to select the choicest of the cows. As a disguise, a close dun-coloured cap, furnished with upright ears, is often worn by the experienced hunter, to give him the appearance of a wolf; for, from constant association, that ravenous beast is regarded by the buffalo without dread. In the spring of the year, when there is a hard crust on the snow, produced by alternate thaw and frost the buffaloes are frequently run down by the hunters, and stabbed with their daggers, while floundering in the deep drifts, which yield to their weight, but support their pursuers, who wear snow-shoes; and in this way, which is the easiest and safest of all, the unfortunate animals fall a prey even to women and boys. Among the Assiniboines, and other Plain tribes, who lead this unlaborious and almost enviable life, the bow is still more used than the gun; and it is to this circumstance that the preservation of the whites in the trading-posts on the banks of the Saskatchewan and Missouri is mainly owing.

In the New York Albion of the 23rd November, 1839, I fell in with an admirable article on the colonization of New Zealand; the follow-