‘One of the most common of these is the method of hunting with fire. For this purpose, a great number of hunters disperse themselves around a large prairie where herds of buffalo happen to be feeding, and setting fire to the grass encompass them on all sides. The buffalo, having a great dread of fire, retire towards the centre of the prairie as they see it approach, and here being pressed together in great numbers, many are trampled under foot, and the Indians rushing in with their arrows and musketry, slaughter immense numbers in a short period. It is asserted that a thousand animals have been killed by this stratagem in one day. They have another method of hunting by driving them over precipices, which is chiefly practised by the bands inhabiting the Missouri. To decoy the herds, several Indians disguise themselves in the skins of the buffalo, taken off entire, and by counterfeiting the lowing of this animal in distress, they attract the herds in a certain direction, and when they are at full speed, suddenly disappear behind a cleft in the top of a precipice, when those animals which are in front on reaching the brink, are pushed over by those pressing behind, and in this manner great numbers are crushed to death. These practices are less common now than formerly, the introduction of fire arms, among most of the tribes, putting it into the power of almost every individual to kill sufficient for the support of his family. ‘By a very bad policy, however, they prefer the flesh of the cows, which will in time destroy the species. Few of the native animals of the American forest contribute more to the comforts of savage society than the buffalo. Its skin, when dressed by a process peculiar to them, forms one of the principal articles of clothing. The Sioux tribes particularly excel in the method of dressing it, and are very much in the habit of ornamenting their dresses with porcupine quills, and paints. The skin, dressed with the hair on, supplies them with blankets, and constitutes those durable and often beautiful sleigh-robes which are now in such universal use in the United States and the Canadas. The tallow of this animal, as well as the beef, has also become an article of commerce, particularly in the south-western states and territories, and its horns are exported for the manufacture of powder-flasks. The tongue is considered superior in flavor to that of the domestic cow, and the animal is often hunted for no other purpose. I have seen stockings and hats manufactured from its wool, with a little addition of common wool, or of cotton. This practice is very common among the white hunters of Missouri and Arkansas. The flesh of the buffalo is not equal, in its fresh state, to that of the cow or ox, but is superior when _dried_, which is the Indian mode of preserving it.