After A Short Absence All Three Of Them Came Back,
Their Horses Loaded With The Choicest Parts Of The Meat; We Kept Two
Of The Cows For Ourselves And Gave The Others To Munroe And His
Companions.
Delorier seated himself on the grass before the pile of
meat, and worked industriously for some time to cut it into thin
broad sheets for drying.
This is no easy matter, but Delorier had
all the skill of an Indian squaw. Long before night cords of raw
hide were stretched around the camp, and the meat was hung upon them
to dry in the sunshine and pure air of the prairie. Our California
companions were less successful at the work; but they accomplished it
after their own fashion, and their side of the camp was soon
garnished in the same manner as our own.
We meant to remain at this place long enough to prepare provisions
for our journey to the frontier, which as we supposed might occupy
about a month. Had the distance been twice as great and the party
ten times as large, the unerring rifle of Henry Chatillon would have
supplied meat enough for the whole within two days; we were obliged
to remain, however, until it should be dry enough for transportation;
so we erected our tent and made the other arrangements for a
permanent camp. The California men, who had no such shelter,
contented themselves with arranging their packs on the grass around
their fire. In the meantime we had nothing to do but amuse
ourselves. Our tent was within a rod of the river, if the broad
sand-beds, 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 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 wild and animated one; for twice a day, at sunrise and at
noon, the buffalo came issuing from the hills, slowly advancing in
their grave processions to drink at the river. All our amusements
were too at their expense. Except an elephant, I have seen no animal
that can surpass a buffalo 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 profound contentment of mind
he beholds him fall. The cows are much smaller and of a gentler
appearance, as becomes 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 we wanted for
use; but against the bulls we waged an unrelenting 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 purpose of commerce
and for making the lodges of the Indians; and the destruction among
them is therefore altogether disproportioned.
Our horses were tired, and we now usually hunted on foot. The wide,
flat sand-beds of the Arkansas, as the 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 Tete Rouge, one of
us would look up and observe, far out on the plains beyond the river,
certain black objects slowly approaching. He would inhale a parting
whiff from the pipe, then rising lazily, take his rifle, which leaned
against the cart, throw over his 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 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 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 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 channeled through the bank. 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 runnel of water is gliding, and he bends his head to drink.
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, and his elbow rests upon it, that he may level
his heavy weapon with a steadier aim.
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