The Western World: Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North; and South AmericaKingston, William Henry Giles
History
The Western World: Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North; and South America
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Natural history -- North America; Natural history -- South America
Even in the winter the buffalo continues to range over the plains in a
far northern latitude. Mr Kane mentions seeing a band, numbering
nearly ten thousand, at the very northern confines of the Fertile Belt,
where the snow was very deep at the time. They, however, had never
before appeared in such vast numbers near the Company's establishments.
Some, on on that occasion, were shot within the gates of Fort Edmonton.
They had killed with their horns twenty or thirty horses, in their
attempt to drive them from the patches of grass which the horses had
laid bare with their hoofs. They were probably migrating northward, to
escape the human migrations so rapidly filling up the southern and
western regions which were formerly their pasture-grounds.
The Cree Indians use dogs to draw their sleighs. They are powerful,
savage animals, having a good deal of the wolf about them. They are
considered as valuable as horses, as everything is drawn over the snow
by them. When buffaloes have been killed in winter, the dead animals
are drawn in by them to the camp; and two can thus easily drag a large
cow buffalo over the snow. The sleigh or cariole used in these regions
is formed of a thin flat board about eighteen inches wide, bent up in
front, with a straight back behind to lean against. The sides are made
of fresh buffalo hide, with the hair completely scraped off, and which,
lapping over, entirely covers the front part, so that a person slips
into it as into a tin bath. Each carries but one passenger. The
driver, on snow-shoes, runs behind to guide the dogs. Each sleigh is
drawn by four dogs, their backs gaudily decorated with saddle-cloths of
various colours, fringed, and embroidered in the most fantastic manner,
and with innumerable small bells and feathers. Two men run before on
snow-shoes to beat a track, which the dogs instinctively follow. A long
cavalcade of this description has a very picturesque appearance.
While thus travelling, our friend Mr Kane caught sight of a herd of
buffaloes, which did not perceive the approach of the party till the
foremost sleigh was so near as to excite the dogs, who rushed furiously
after them, notwithstanding all the efforts of the drivers to keep them
back. The spirit of the hunt was at once communicated through the whole
line, and the entire party were in an instant dashing along at a furious
rate after the buffaloes. The frightened animals made a bold dash at
length through a deep snow-bank, and attempted to scramble up the steep
side of the river, the top of which the foremost one had nearly reached,
when, slipping, he rolled down and knocked over those behind, one on the
top of the other, into the deep snow-drift, from which men and dogs were
struggling in vain to extricate themselves. It would be impossible to
describe the wild scene of uproar that followed. One of the sleighs was
smashed, and a man nearly killed; but at length the party succeeded in
getting clear, and repairing the damage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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