Bisons (or buffaloes) description of, p. 247.—Habits of, p. 248.—Bulls’ fighting—Buffalo wallows—Fairy circles, p. 249, pls. 105, 106.—Running the buffaloes, and throwing the arrow, p. 251, pl. 107.—Buffalo chase—Use of the laso, p. 253, pls. 108, 109.—Hunting under masque of white wolfskins, p. 254, pl. 110.—Horses destroyed in buffalo hunting, p. 255, pl. 111.—Buffalo calf—Mode of catching and bringing in, p. 255, pl. 112.—Immense and wanton destruction of buffaloes—1,400 killed, p. 256.—White wolves attacking buffaloes, p. 257–8, pls. 113, 114.—Contemplations on the probable extinction of buffaloes and Indians, p. 258, 264. [Illustration: OUTLINE MAP _OF_ INDIAN LOCALITIES _in 1833_. In Vol. 2. see Map of _LOCALITIES in 1840, since all the tribes have been removed from the States, W. of the Mississippi_ ] LETTER—No. 1. As the following pages have been hastily compiled, at the urgent request of a number of my friends, from a series of Letters and Notes written by myself during several years’ residence and travel amongst a number of the wildest and most remote tribes of the North American Indians, I have thought it best to make this page the beginning of my book; dispensing with Preface, and even with Dedication, other than that which I hereby make of it, with all my heart, to those who will take the pains to read it. If it be necessary to render any apology for beginning thus unceremoniously my readers will understand that I had no space in these, my first volumes, to throw away; nor much time at my disposal, which I could, in justice, use for introducing myself and my works to the world. Having commenced thus abruptly then, I will venture to take upon myself the sin of calling this one of the series of Letters of which I have spoken; although I am writing it several years later, and placing it at the beginning of my book; by which means I will be enabled briefly to introduce myself to my readers (who, as yet, know little or nothing of me), and also the subjects of the following epistles, with such explanations of the customs described in them, as will serve for a key or glossary to the same, and prepare the reader’s mind for the information they contain. Amidst the multiplicity of books which are, in this enlightened age, flooding the world, I feel it my duty, as early as possible, to beg pardon for making a book at all; and in the next (if my readers should become so much interested in my narrations, as to censure me for the brevity of the work) to take some considerable credit for not having trespassed too long upon their time and patience.