isest forethought could suggest, yet circumstances
beyond the control of the most experienced traveler may sometimes arise
to defeat the best concerted plans. It is not, for example, an
impossible contingency that the traveler may, by unforeseen delays,
consume his provisions, lose them in crossing streams, or have them
stolen by hostile Indians, and be reduced to the necessity of depending
upon game for subsistence. Under these circumstances, a few
observations upon the habits of the different animals that frequent the
Plains and on the best methods of hunting them may not be altogether
devoid of interest or utility in this connection.

THE BUFFALO.

The largest and most useful animal that roams over the prairies is the
buffalo. It provides food, clothing, and shelter to thousands of
natives whose means of livelihood depend almost exclusively upon this
gigantic monarch of the prairies.

Not many years since they thronged in countless multitudes over all
that vast area lying between Mexico and the British possessions, but
now their range is confined within very narrow limits, and a few more
years will probably witness the extinction of the species.

The traveler, in passing from Texas or Arkansas through southern New
Mexico to California, does not, at the present day, encounter the
buffalo; but upon all the routes north of latitude 36 deg. the animal is
still found between the 99th and 102d meridians of longitude.

Although generally regarded as migratory in their habits, yet the
buffalo often _winter_ in the snows of a high northern latitude. Early
in the spring of 1858 I found them in the Rocky Mountains, at the head
of the Arkansas and South Platte Rivers, and there was every indication
that this was a permanent abiding-place for them.

There are two methods generally practiced in hunting the buffalo, viz.:
running them on horseback, and stalking, or still-hunting. The first
method requires a sure-footed and tolerably fleet horse that is not
easily frightened. The buffalo cow, which makes much better beef than
the bull, when pursued by the hunter runs rapidly, and, unless the
horse be fleet, it requires a long and exhausting chase to overtake
her.

When the buffalo are discovered, and the hunter intends to give chase,
he should first dismount, arrange his saddle-blanket and saddle, buckle
the girth tight, and make every thing about his horse furniture snug
and secure. He should then put his arms in good fir