ommon on the Missouri, and by
which vast herds are destroyed in a moment. The mode of hunting is to
select one of the most active and fleet young men, who is disguised by a
buffaloe skin round his body; the skin of the head with the ears and
horns fastened on his own head in such a way as to deceive the buffaloe:
thus dressed, he fixes himself at a convenient distant between a herd of
buffaloe and any of the river precipices, which sometimes extend for
some miles. His companions in the meantime get in the rear and side of
the herd, and at a given signal show themselves, and advance towards the
buffaloe: they instantly take the alarm, and finding the hunters beside
them, they run towards the disguised Indian or decoy, who leads them on
at full speed toward the river, when suddenly securing himself in some
crevice of the cliff which he had previously fixed on, the herd is left
on the brink of the precipice: it is then in vain for the foremost to
retreat or even to stop; they are pressed on by the hindmost rank, who
seeing no danger but from the hunters, goad on those before them till
the whole are precipitated and the shore is strewn with their dead
bodies. Sometimes in this perilous seduction the Indian is himself
either trodden under root by the rapid movements of the buffaloe, or
missing his footing in the cliff is urged down the precipice by the
falling herd. The Indians then select as much meat as they wish, and the
rest is abandoned to the wolves, and create a most dreadful stench. The
wolves who had been feasting on these carcases were very fat, and so
gentle that one of them was killed with an esponton. Above this place we
came to for dinner at the distance of seventeen miles, opposite to a
bold running river of twenty yards wide, and falling in on the south.
From the objects we had just passed we called this stream Slaughter
river. Its low grounds are narrow, and contain scarcely any timber. Soon
after landing it began to blow and rain, and as there was no prospect of
getting wood for fuel farther on, we fixed our camp on the north, three
quarters of a mile above Slaughter river. After the labours of the day
we gave to each man a dram, and such was the effect of long abstinence
from spirituous liquors, that from the small quantity of half a gill of
rum, several of the men were considerably affected by it, and all very
much exhilirated. Our game to-day consisted of an elk and two beaver.

Thursday, 30. The rain whi