The Extermination of the American BisonHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
The Extermination of the American Bison
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
American bison; Wildlife conservation -- United States -- Sources
The still-hunter usually went on foot, for when buffaloes became so
scarce as to make it necessary for him to ride his occupation was
practically gone. At the time I speak of, the hunter seldom had to walk
more than 3 miles from camp to find buffalo, in case there were any at
all on his range, and it was usually an advantage to be without a horse.
From the top of a ridge or high butte the country was carefully scanned,
and if several small herds were in sight the one easiest to approach was
selected as the one to attack. It was far better to find a herd lying
down or quietly grazing, or sheltering from a cold wind, than to find it
traveling, for while a hard run of a mile or two often enabled the
hunter to "head off" a moving herd and kill a certain number of animals
out of it, the net results were never half so satisfactory as with herds
absolutely at rest.
Having decided upon an attack, the hunter gets to leeward of his game,
and approaches it according to the nature of the ground. If it is in a
hollow, he secures a position at the top of the nearest ridge, as close
as he can get. If it is in a level "flat," he looks for a gully up which
he can skulk until within good rifle-shot. If there is no gully, he may
be obliged to crawl half a mile on his hands and knees, often through
snow or amongst beds of prickly pear, taking advantage of even such
scanty cover as sage-brush affords. Some Montana still-hunters adopted
the method of drawing a gunny-sack over the entire upper half of the
body, with holes cut for the eyes and arms, which simple but
unpicturesque arrangement often enabled the hunter to approach his
game much more easily and more closely than would otherwise have been
possible.
[Illustration: STILL-HUNTING BUFFALOES ON THE NORTHERN RANGE.
From a painting by J. H. Moser, in the National Museum.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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