USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 28
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with a scanty stream of water coursing here and there along their surface, deserve to be dignified with the name of river. The vast flat plains on either side were almost on a level with the sand-beds, and they were bounded in the distance by 5 low, monotonous hills, parallel to the course of the Arkansas. All was one expanse of grass; there was no wood in view, except some trees and stunted bushes upon two islands which rose from amid the wet sands of the river. Yet far from being dull and tame this boundless scene was often a Io wild and animated one; for twice a day, at sunrise and at noon, the buffalo came issuing from the hills, slowly ad- vancing in their grave processions to drink at the river. All our amusements were to be at their expense. Except an elephant, I have seen no animal that can surpass a buffalo 15 bull in size and strength, and the world may be searched in vain to find anything of a more ugly and ferocious aspect. At first sight of him every feeling of sympathy vanishes; no man who has not experienced it can understand with what keen relish one inflicts his death wound, with what 20 profound contentment of mind he beholds him fall. The cows are much smaller and of a gentler appearance, as be- comes their sex. While in this camp we forebore to attack them, leaving to Henry Chatillon, who could better judge their fatness and good quality, the task of killing such as 25 we wanted for use; but against the bulls we waged an un- relenting war. Thousands of them might be slaughtered without causing any detriment to the species, for their numbers greatly exceed those of the cows; it is the hides of the latter alone which are used for the purpose of com- 3º merce and for making the lodges of the Indians; and the destruction among them is therefore altogether dispropor- tioned.
Our horses were tired, and we now usually hunted on foot. The wide flat sand-beds of the Arkansas, as the 35 reader will remember, lay close by the side of our camp. While we were lying on the grass after dinner, smoking, conversing, or laughing at Tête Rouge, one of us would look up and observe, far out on the plains beyond the river, certain black objects slowly approaching. He would in- 40 hale a parting whiff from the pipe, then rising lazily, take his rifle, which leaned against the cart, throw over his
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shoulder the strap of his pouch and powder-horn, and with his moccasins in his hand walk quietly across the sand toward the opposite side of the river. This was very easy; for though the sands were about a quarter of a mile wide, the water was nowhere more than two feet deep. The 5 farther bank was about four or five feet high, and quite perpendicular, being cut away by the water in spring. Tall grass grew along its edge. Putting it aside with his hand, and cautiously looking through it, the hunter can discern the huge shaggy back of the buffalo slowly swaying Ic to and fro, as with his clumsy swinging gait he advances toward the water. The buffalo have regular paths by which
they come down to drink. Seeing at a glance along which of these his intended victim is moving, the hunter crouches under the bank within fifteen or twenty yards, it may be, of the 15 point where the path enters the river. Here he sits down quietly on the sand. Listening intently, he hears the heavy monotonous tread of the approaching bull. The moment after he sees a motion among the long weeds and grass just at the spot where the path is channelled through the bank. 20 An enormous black head is thrust out, the horns just visible amid the mass of tangled mane. Half sliding, half plunging, down comes the buffalo upon the river-bed below. He steps out in full sight upon the sands. Just before him a runnelº of water is gliding, and he bends his head to drink. 25 You may hear the water as it gurgles down his capacious throat. He raises his head, and the drops trickle from his wet beard. He stands with an air of stupid abstraction, unconscious of the lurking danger. Noiselessly the hunter cocks his rifle. As he sits upon the sand, his knee is raised, 30 and his elbow rests upon it, that he may level his heavy weapon with a steadier aim. The stock is at his shoulder; his eye ranges along the barrel.
Still he is in no haste to fire. The bull, with slow deliberation, begins his march over the sands to the other side. He advances his fore-leg, 35 and exposes to view a small spot, denuded of hair, just behind the point of his shoulder; upon this the hunter brings the sight of his rifle to bear; lightly and delicately his finger presses upon the hair-trigger. Quick as thought the spiteful crack of the rifle responds to his slight touch, 40 and instantly in the middle of the bare spot appears a small
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red dot. The buffalo shivers; death has overtaken him, he cannot tell from whence; still he does not fall, but walks heavily forward, as if nothing had happened. Yet before he has advanced far out upon the sand, you see him stop; 5 he totters; his knees bend under him, and his head sinks forward to the ground. Then his whole vast bulk sways to one side; he rolls over on the sand, and dies with a scarcely perceptible struggle.
Waylaying the buffalo in this manner, and shooting them 10 as they come to water, is the easiest and laziest method of hunting them. They may also be approached by crawling up ravines, or behind hills, or even over the open prairie. This is often surprisingly easy ; but at other times it requires the utmost skill of the most experienced hunter. Henry 15 Chatillon was a man of extraordinary strength and hardi- hood; but I have seen him return to camp quite exhausted with his efforts, his limbs scratched and wounded, and his buckskin dress stuck full of the thorns of the prickly-pear among which he had been crawling. Sometimes he would 20 lie flat upon his face, and drag himself along in this position for many rods together.
On the second day of our stay at this place, Henry went out for an afternoon hunt. Shaw and I remained in camp until, observing some bulls approaching the water upon 25 the other side of the river, we crossed over to attack them. They were so near, however, that before we could get under cover of the bank our appearance as we walked over the sands alarmed them. Turning round before coming within gunshot, they began to move off to the right in a direction 30 parallel to the river. I climbed up the bank and ran after them. They were walking swiftly, and before I could come within gunshot distance they slowly wheeled about and faced toward me. Before they had turned far enough to see me I had fallen flat on my face. For a moment they 35 stood and stared at the strange object upon the grass; then turning away, again they walked on as before; and I, rising immediately, ran once more in pursuit. Again they wheeled about, and again I fell prostrate. Repeating this three or four times, I came at length within a hundred yards 40 of the fugitives, and as. I saw them turning again I sat down and leveled my rifle. The one in the center was the largest
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I had ever seen. I shot him behind the shoulder. His two companions ran off. He attempted to follow, but soon came to a stand, and at length lay down as quietly as an ox chewing the cud. Cautiously approaching him, I saw by his dull and jellylike eye that he was dead.
5
When I began the chase, the prairie was almost tenant- less; but a great multitude of buffalo had suddenly thronged - upon it, and looking up, I saw within fifty rods a heavy, dark column stretching to the right and left as far as I could see. I walked toward them. My approach did not 10 alarm them in the least. The column itself consisted en- tirely of cows and calves, but a great many old bulls were ranging about the prairie on its flank, and as I drew near they faced toward me with such a shaggy and ferocious look that I thought it best to proceed no farther. Indeed 15 I was already within close rifle-shot of the column, and I sat down on the ground to watch their movements. Some- times the whole would stand still, their heads all facing one way; then they would trot forward, as if by a common im- pulse, their hoofs and horns clattering together as they 20 moved. I soon began to hear at a distance on the left the short reports of a rifle, again and again repeated; and not long after, dull and heavy sounds succeeded, which I recog- nized as the familiar voice of Shaw's double-barreled gun. When Henry's rifle was at work there was always meat to 25 be brought in. I went back across the river for a horse, and returning, reached the spot where the hunters were standing. The buffalo were visible on the distant prairie. The living had retreated from the ground, but ten or twelve carcasses were scattered in various directions. Henry, 30 knife in hand, was stooping over a dead cow, cutting away the best and fattest of the meat.
When Shaw left me he had walked down for some dis- tance under the river bank to find another bull. At length he saw the plains covered with the host of buffalo, and soon 35 after heard the crack of Henry's rifle. Ascending the bank, he crawled through the grass, which for a rod or two from the river was very high and rank. He had not crawled far before to his astonishment he saw Henry standing erect upon the prairie, almost surrounded by the buffalo. Henry 4c was in his appropriate element. Nelson," on the deck of the
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Victory, hardly felt a prouder sense of mastery than he. Quite unconscious that any one was looking at him, he stood at the full height of his tall, strong figure, one hand resting upon his side, and the other arm leaning carelessly 5 on the muzzle of his rifle. His eyes were ranging over the singular assemblage around him. Now and then he would select such a cow as suited him, level his rifle, and shoot her dead; then quietly reloading, he would resume his for- Iner position. The buffalo seemed no more to regard Io his presence than if he were one of themselves; the bulls were bellowing and butting at each other, or else rolling about in the dust. A group of buffalo would gather about the carcass of a dead cow, snuffing at her wounds; and sometimes they would come behind those that had not yet 15 fallen, and endeavor to push them from the spot. Now and then some old bull would face toward Henry with an air of stupid amazement, but none seemed inclined to attack or fly from him. For some time Shaw lay among the grass, looking in surprise at this extraordinary sight; at length 20 he crawled cautiously forward, and spoke in a low voice to Henry, who told him to rise and come on. Still the buffalo showed no sign of fear; they remained gathered about their dead companions. Henry had already killed as many cows as we wanted for use, and Shaw, kneeling behind one of the 25 carcasses, shot five bulls before the rest thought it necessary to disperse.
The frequent stupidity and infatuation of the buffalo seems the more remarkable from the contrast it offers to their wildness and wariness at other times. Henry knew 30 all their peculiarities; he had studied them as a scholar studies his books, and he derived quite as much pleasure from the occupation. The buffalo were a kind of compan- ions to him, and, as he said, he never felt alone when they were about him. He took great pride in his skill in hunt- 35 ing. Henry was one of the most modest of men; yet, in the
simplicity and frankness of his character, it was quite clear that he looked upon his pre-eminence in this respect as a thing too palpable and well established ever to be disputed. But whatever may have been his estimate of his own skill, it 40 was rather below than above that which others placed upon it. The only time that I ever saw a shade of scorn darken
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his face was when two volunteer soldiers, who had just killed a buffalo for the first time, undertook to instruct him as to the best method of "approaching.". To borrow an illustration from an opposite side of life, an Eton° boy might as well have sought to enlighten Porsonº on the formation 5 of a Greek verb, or a Fleet street shopkeeper to instruct Chesterfield° concerning a point of etiquette. Henry al- ways seemed to think that he had a sort of prescriptive right to the buffalo, and to look upon them as something belonging peculiarly to himself. Nothing excited his in- Ic dignation so much as any wanton destruction committed among the cows, and in his view shooting a calf was a car- dinal sin.
Henry Chatillon and Tête Rouge were of the same age; that is, about thirty. Henry was twice as large, and fully 15 six times as strong as Tête Rouge. Henry's face was roughened by winds and storms; Tête Rouge's was bloated by sherry cobblers° and brandy toddy.º Henry talked of Indians and buffalo; Tête Rouge of theaters and oyster cellars. Henry had led a life of hardship and privation; 20 Tête Rouge never had a whim which he would not gratify at the first moment he was able. Henry moreover was the most disinterested man I ever saw; while Tête Rouge, though equally good-natured in his way, cared for nobody
but himself. Yet we would not have lost him on any ac- 25 count; he admirably served the purpose of a jester in a feudal castle; our camp would have been lifeless without him. For the past week he had fattened in a most amazing manner; and indeed this was not at all surprising, since his appetite was most inordinate. He was eating from 30 morning till night; half the time he would be at work cook- ing some private repast for himself, and he paid a visit to the coffee-pot eight or ten times a day. His rueful and disconsolate face became jovial and rubicund, his eyes stood out like a lobster's, and his spirits, which before 35 were sunk to the depths of despondency, were now elated in proportion; all day he was singing, whistling, laughing, and telling stories. Being mortally afraid of Jim Gurney, he kept close in the neighborhood of our tent. As he had seen an abundance of low dissipated life, and had a con- 40 siderable fund of humor, his anecdotes were extremely -
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amusing, especially since he never hesitated to place him- self in a ludicrous point of view, provided he could raise a laugh by doing so. Tête Rouge, however, was sometimes rather troublesome; he had an inveterate habit of pilfering 5 provisions at all times of the day. He set ridicule at utter defiance; and being without a particle of self-respect, he would never have given over his tricks, even if they had drawn upon him the scorn of the whole party. Now and then, indeed, something worse than laughter fell to his to share; on these occasions he would exhibit much contrition, but half an hour after we would generally observe him steal- ing round to the box at the back of the cart and slyly mak- ing off with the provisions which Deslauriers had laid by for supper. He was very fond of smoking; but having no 15 tobacco of his own, we used to provide him with as much as he wanted, a small piece at a time. At first we gave him half a pound together, but this experiment proved an entire failure, for he invariably lost not only the tobacco, but the knife intrusted to him for cutting it, and a few 20 minutes after he would come to us with many apologies and beg for more.
We had been two days at this camp, and some of the meat was nearly fit for transportation, when a storm came suddenly upon us. About sunset the whole sky grew as 25 black as ink, and the long grass at the river's edge bent and rose mournfully with the first gusts of the approaching hurricane. Munroe and his two companions brought their guns and placed them under cover of our tent, Having no shelter for themselves, they built a fire of driftwood that 30 mnight have defied a cataract, and wrapped in their buffalo robes, sat on the ground around it to bide the fury of the storm. Deslauriers ensconced° himself under the cover of the cart. Shaw and I, together with Henry and Tête Rouge, crowded into the little tent; but first of all the 35 dried meat was piled together, and well protected by buffalo robes pinned firmly to the ground. About nine o'clock the storm broke, amid absolute darkness; it blew a gale, and torrents of rain roared over the boundless expanse of open prairie. Our tent was filled with mist and spray beating 40 through the canvas, and saturating everything within. We could only distinguish each other at short intervals by the
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dazzling flash of lightning, which displayed the whole waste around us with its momentary glare. We had our fears for the tent; but for an hour or two it stood fast, until at length the cap gave way before a furious blast; the pole tore through the top, and in an instant we were half suffo- 5 cated by the cold and dripping folds of the canvas, which fell down upon us. Seizing upon our guns, we placed them erect, in order to lift the saturated cloth above our heads. In this agreeable situation, involved among wet blankets and buffalo robes, we spent several hours of the night during 10 which the storm would not abate for a moment, but pelted down above our heads with merciless fury. Before long the ground beneath us became soaked with moisture, and the water gathered there in a pool two or three inches deep; so that for a considerable part of the night we were partially 15 immersed in a cold bath. In spite of all this, Tête Rouge's flow of spirits did not desert him for an instant; he laughed, whistled, and sung in defiance of the storm, and that night he paid off the long arrears of ridicule which he owed us. While we lay in silence, enduring the infliction with what 20 philosophy we could muster, Tête Rouge, who was intoxi- cated with animal spirits, was cracking jokes at our expense by the hour together. At about three o'clock in the morn- ing, "preferring the tyranny of the open night" to such a wretched shelter, we crawled out from beneath the fallen 25 canvas. The wind had abated, but the rain fell steadily. The fire of the California men still blazed amid the darkness, and we joined them as they sat around it. We made ready some hot coffee by way of refreshment; but when some of the party sought to replenish their cups, it was found that 30 Tête Rouge, having disposed of his own share, had privately abstracted the coffee-pot and drank up the rest of the con- tents out of the spout.
In the morning, to our great joy, an unclouded sun rose upon the prairie. We presented rather a laughable ap- 35 pearance, for the cold and clammy buckskin, saturated with water, clung fast to our limbs; the light wind and warm sunshine soon dried them again, and then we were all incased in armor of intolerable rigidity. Roaming all day over the prairie and shooting two or three bulls, were 40 scarcely enough to restore the stiffened leather to its usual pliancy.
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96E
Besides Henry Chatillon, Shaw and I were the only hunters in the party. Munroe this morning made an attempt to run a buffalo, but his horse could not come up to the game. Shaw went out with him, and being better mounted soon 5 found himself in the midst of the herd. Seeing nothing but cows and calves around him, he checked his horse. An old bull came galloping on the open prairie at some distance behind, and turning, Shaw rode across his path, leveling his gun as he passed, and shooting him through the shoulder ro into the heart. The heavy bullets of Shaw's double-bar- reled gun made wild work wherever they struck.
A great flock of buzzards were usually soaring about a few trees that stood on the island just below our camp. Throughout the whole of yesterday we had noticed an eagle 15 among them; to-day he was still there; and Tête Rouge, declaring that he would kill the bird of America, borrowed Deslauriers' gun and set out on his unpatriotic mission. As might have been expected, the eagle suffered no great harm at his hands. He soon returned, saying that he could 20 not find him, but had shot a buzzard instead. Being re- quired to produce the bird in proof of his assertion he said he believed that he was not quite dead, but he must be hurt, from the swiftness with which he flew off.
"If you want," said Tête Rouge, "I'll go and get one of 25 his feathers; I knocked off plenty of them when I shot him." Just opposite our camp was another island covered with bushes, and behind it was a deep pool of water, while two or three considerable streams coursed over the sand not far off. I was bathing at this place in the afternoon when 30 a white wolf, larger than the largest Newfoundland dog, ran out from behind the point of the island, and galloped leisurely over the sand not half a stone's throw distant.
I could plainly see his red eyes and the bristles about his snout; he was an ugly scoundrel, with a bushy tail, large 35 head, and a most repulsive countenance. Having neither rifle to shoot nor stone to pelt him with, I was looking eagerly after some missile for his benefit, when the report of a gun came from the camp, and the ball threw up the sand just beyond him; at this he gave a slight jump, and stretched 40 away so swiftly that he soon dwindled into a mere speck on the distant sand-beds. The number of carcasses that
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by this time were lying about the prairie all round us sum- moned the wolves from every quarter; the spot where Shaw and Henry had hunted together soon became their favorite resort, for here about a dozen dead buffalo were fermenting under the hot sun. I used often to go over the 5 river and watch them at their meal; by lying under the bank it was easy to get a full view of them. Three differ- ent kinds were present; there were the white wolves and the gray wolves, both extremely large, and besides these the small prairie wolves, not much bigger than spaniels. 10 They would howl and fight in a crowd around a single car- cass, yet they were so watchful, and their senses so acute, that I never was able to crawl within a fair shooting dis- tance; whenever I attempted it, they would all scatter at once and glide silently away through the tall grass. The 15
air above this spot was always full of buzzards or black vul- tures; whenever the wolves left a carcass they would de- scend upon it, and cover it so densely that a rifle-bullet shot- at random among the gormandizing crowd would generally strike down two or three of them. These birds would now 20 be sailing by scores just above our camp, their broad black wings seeming half transparent as they expanded them against the bright sky. The wolves and the buzzards thickened about us with every hour, and two or three 'eagles also came into the feast. I killed a bull within rifle-shot 25 of the camp; that night the wolves made a fearful howling close at hand, and in the morning the carcass was com- pletely hollowed out by these voracious feeders.
After we had remained four days at this camp we pre- pared to leave it. We had for our own part about five 30 hundred pounds of dried meat, and the California men had prepared some three hundred more; this consisted of the fattest and choicest parts of eight or nine cows, a very small quantity only being taken from each, and the rest aban- doned to the wolves. The pack animals were laden, the 35 horses were saddled, and the mules harnessed to the cart. Even Tête Rouge was ready at last, and slowly moving from the ground, we resumed our journey eastward. When we had advanced about a mile, Shaw missed a valuable hunting knife and turned back in search of it, thinking that 40 he had left it at the camp. He approached the place
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cautiously, fearful that Indians might be lurking about, for a deserted camp is dangerous to return to. He saw no enemy, but the scene was a wild and dreary one; the prairie was overshadowed by dull, leaden clouds, for the day was dark
5 and gloomy. The ashes of the fires were still smoking by the river-side; the grass around them was trampled down by men and horses, and strewn with all the litter of a camp. Our departure had been a gathering signal to the birds and beasts of prey; Shaw assured me that literally dozens of Io wolves were prowling about the smoldering fires, while multitudes were roaming over the prairie around; they all fled as he approached, some running over the sand-beds
and some over the grassy plains. The vultures in great clouds were soaring overhead, and the dead bull near the 15 camp was completely blackened by the flock that had alighted upon it; they flapped their broad wings, and stretched upward their crested heads and long skinny necks, fearing to remain, yet reluctant to leave their disgusting feast. As he searched about the fires he saw the wolves
20 seated on the distant hills waiting for his departure. Hav- ing looked in vain for his knife, he mounted again and left the wolves and the vultures to banquet freely upon the carrion of the camp.
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