CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
ANIMALS OF THE WILDERNESS--THE SIOUX AGAIN--AN ENCAMPMENT OF CREEINDIANS--BUFFALO POUNDS--TO THE RED RIVER.
We remained here a couple of days to rest our cattle and put our cartsin order, and then pushed on by the back trail due west across theprairie towards Fort Ellis. We encountered wonderfully few difficultiesin our progress, though we met with not a few adventures. Everywhererabbits were plentiful, as were all sorts of wild fowl, so that we faredsumptuously. We noticed hamming birds and locusts or grasshoppers, asthey are here called, innumerable. Vast flights passed over our heads,appearing like silvery clouds in the sky. So voracious are they thatthey destroyed every article of clothing left on the grass. Saddles,girths, leather bags, and clothes were devoured without distinction.Ten minutes sufficed them, as some of our men found to their cost, todestroy several garments which had been carelessly left on the ground.Looking upwards at the sun as near as the light would permit, we saw thesky continually changing colour, according to the numbers in the passingclouds of insects. Opposite the sun the prevailing hue was a silverwhite, continually flashing. The hum produced by so many millions ofwings is indescribable, sounding something like a singing in our ears.These locusts are, as may be supposed, the great enemies to the farmersof these regions--their greatest, even before early and late frosts.Fortunately they do not come every year. We fell in with a few blackbears and wolves, and with red deer and elks, buffaloes, and other wildanimals, so that we had plenty of fresh meat for the table, besides wildfowl and fish, amongst which is a delicious variety of pike, named bythe original French Canadians, from the peculiar formation of its mouthand head, _Masque-alonge_, Long-face. Beavers have become almostextinct, and so have panthers; but in our fishing expeditions we foundthat otters were still plentiful. Our plan of encamping was somewhatdifferent from that we adopted when voyaging in canoes. At night, ourfires being lit, we assembled round them, to cook our provisions, and toescape the breeze-fly and mosquitoes and other insects which the smokekeeps away. Sending out scouts to ascertain that no Redskins were inthe neighbourhood, who would steal our animals if they could, we turnedthem loose, knowing that they would not stray far. One night, however,one of our scouts reported that he had seen something approach the browof the hill about two hundred yards off, and that after gazing at theencampment it had disappeared; but whether it was a two-legged orfour-legged creature he could not say.
The next night, as I was going my rounds, I distinctly heard a horseneigh. This, when I reported it, with the occurrence of the previousnight, made our guides sure that we were watched by Sioux, and that theywould attempt to steal our horses. Our camp-fires were therefore putout, the carts placed close together, the animals brought in andtethered, and a watch set. The general opinion was, however, that noattack would be made till near dawn. Still, it would be unwise to trustto that. The horses, after a time, became restless. Ready also showed,by his low growls, that he fancied enemies were in the neighbourhood.Our half-breeds, accordingly, crawling through the grass, arrangedthemselves in a half-circle about seventy yards from the carts, eachwith his gun loaded with buck-shot. The night was dark, and not a wordwas spoken above a whisper. Towards morning a scout came in to reportthat he had heard a person or animal crossing the river--that it camenear him and then passed on near the camp. On this he judged it time tofollow--that it had come within thirty yards of the tents, when Readyhad growled, and that then turning off it had recrossed the river. Onhearing this, we became still more anxious than ever, expecting everymoment an attack. When morning dawned we discovered that we had beencompletely surrounded by Indians; who, however, perceiving that we wereon the alert and that the horses were tethered, abandoned the attempt tosteal them.
This circumstance taught us the necessity for constant caution, at thesame time it showed us that the Redskins could not be very desperate orblood-thirsty characters, or they would have attacked us in a far boldermanner. Some days after this our leading scout galloped in, announcingthat he had come upon a large encampment of Crees near which we mustpass. We closed up immediately and stood to our arms, not knowingwhether the strangers would prove to be friends or foes. In themeantime we sent Stalker forward as an ambassador to announce ourarrival, and to express a wish on our part to have an interview withtheir chief. Our envoy had not been long absent when a band of sixtyCree horsemen appeared in sight, galloping rapidly towards us--wild-looking fellows, many of them naked with the exception of the clothand belts, and armed with bows and spears, while a few with moregarments had firearms. They were headed by a gaily-dressed youth, witha spangled coat, and feathers in his hair, who announced himself as theson of the chief, and stated that he was sent forward to conduct us totheir camp.
We accordingly begged him and his followers to dismount, and made themwelcome with the never-failing calumet. He informed us that his tribewas engaged in buffalo hunting or rather trapping, and that they wereabout to construct a new pound, having filled the present one withbuffalo, but had been compelled to abandon it on account of the stenchwhich arose from the putrefying bodies; and he expressed a wish that wewould watch them filling the new pound. After the young chief, whosename sounded and might I believe have been literally rendered Fistycuff,had sat smoking an hour he proposed setting out for the camp. Weaccordingly ordered an advance, and rode on talking pleasantly withoutthe slightest fear of treachery. As we neared the Cree camp we saw thewomen employed in moving their goods, being assisted in this operationby large numbers of dogs, each dog having two poles harnessed to him, onwhich a load of meat, pemmican, or camp furniture was laid.
Having pitched our camp and enjoyed another official smoke, youngFistycuff invited us to see the old buffalo pound, in which during thepast week they had been entrapping buffalo. We accepted the offer, andwith as much dignity as if he was about to show us some delightfulpleasure-grounds, he led us to a little valley, through a lane ofbranches of trees which are called "dead men," to the gate or trap ofthe pound. The branches are called "dead," or "silent men" rather, fromthe office they perform of keeping the buffalo in a straight line asthey are driven towards the pound. A most horrible and disgusting sightbroke upon us as we ascended the hill overlooking the pound. Within acircular fence of a hundred and twenty feet in diameter, constructed ofthe trunks of trees laced together with withies, and braced by outsidesupports, lay, tossed in every conceivable position, upwards of twohundred dead buffaloes. From old bulls to calves, animals of everydescription were huddled together in all the forced attitudes of aviolent death. Some lay on their backs with their eyes starting fromtheir heads, and their tongues thrust out through clotted gore. Otherswere impaled on the horns of the old and strong bulls, others againwhich had been tossed were lying with broken backs, two and three deep.The young chief and his people looked upon the dreadful and sickeningscene with evident delight, and described how such and such a bull orcow had exhibited feats of wonderful strength in the death-struggle.
The flesh of many of the cows had been taken off, and was drying in thesun on stages near the tents to make pemmican. The odour was almostoverpowering, and millions of large blue flesh-flies were humming andbuzzing over the putrefying bodies.
After we had refreshed ourselves--as Fistycuff expressed a hope that wehad done--with this spectacle, he begged that we would ride on to thenew pound. It was formed in the same way. From it two lines of treeswere placed, extending to a distance of four miles into the prairie,each tree being about fifty feet from the others, forming a road abouttwo miles wide, all the mouths gradually narrowing towards the pound.Men had concealed themselves behind the trees, and the hunters havingsucceeded in driving a herd into the road, they rose and shook theirrobes on any attempt being made to break away from it. Now on came theherd rushing forward at headlong speed. Now an Indian would dart outfrom behind a tree and shake his robe as an animal showed an inclinationto break out of the line, and as quietly again retreat. At the entranceof the pound th
ere was a strong trunk of a tree about a foot from theground, and on the inner side an excavation sufficiently deep to preventthe buffalo from leaping back when once in the pound. The buffaloesclosed in one on the other, the space they occupied narrowing till theybecame one dense mass, and then, ignorant of the trap prepared for them,they leaped madly over the horizontal trunk. As soon as they had takenthe fatal spring, they began to gallop round and round the ring fence,looking for a chance of escape; but with the utmost silence, the men,women, and children who stood close together surrounding the fence, heldout their robes before every orifice until the whole herd was broughtin. They then climbed to the top of the fence, and joined by thehunters who had closely followed the helpless buffalo, darted theirspears or shot with bows or firearms at the bewildered animals, nowfrantic with rage and terror on finding themselves unable to escape fromthe narrow limits of the pound.
A great number had thus been driven in and killed, and we were aboutretiring from the horrid spectacle, at the risk of bringing on ourselvesthe contempt of our hosts, when one wary old bull espying a narrowcrevice which had not been closed by the robes of those on the outside,made a furious dash and broke through the fence. In spite of thefrantic efforts of the Indians to close it up again, the half-maddenedsurvivors followed their leader, and before their impetuous career couldbe stopped they were galloping helter-skelter among the sand hills, withthe exception of a dozen or so which were shot down by arrows or bulletsas they passed along in their furious course.
In consequence of the wholesale and wanton destruction of the buffalo,an example of which we witnessed, they have greatly diminished. We werenot surprised afterwards to hear the old chief say, that he rememberedthe time when his people were as numerous as the buffalo now are, andthe buffalo were as thick as the trees of the forest. We spent two veryinteresting days with him, and then turned our horses' heads towards theRed River, that we might prepare for a canoe voyage on the lakes and upthe Saskatchewan, which we had resolved to make.
The Perils and Adventures of Harry Skipwith by Land and Sea Page 16
