| Summary: | PIERCE COUNTY 17 parentage. Then there were English, Scotch, Orkney, and a few others. In the brigade there would be. about six hundred Red river carts, drawn by horses and oxen, and twelve hundred persons, men, women and children. Being all assembled, and all arrangements having been made, officers would be appointed by some leader, from councilmen to constables, guides, etc. The route would be determined upon after hearing the report of the scouts who were sent out to find where big bands of buffalo were ranging. The brigade would form in line, three or four deep, according to the size of the party, to make a move for the nearest buffalo. Then they would strike out for the plains, sometimes for tlie Cheyenne, Devils lake, Mouse river; Juries river or the Turtle mountains. As soon as they found buffalo they would follow them up for days, whichever way they ran. Along about noon the brigade would be ready to start and usually would travel for a clay or so before the buffalo would be seen. If the herds were not sighted until late in the dajr the hunters would .wait until the next morning to run the buffaloes. Before starting out two or three of the hunters would move out at a very slow pace, returning to report when they found fresh signs of buffaloes: Then every hunter saddled and mounted his horse, going ahead about a mile before the carts. When the hunters would see the herd, they would trot along slowly until within a half mile of the animals. Some of these .would be standing, some lying down and a few feeding. As they would begin to rise, the hunters would go a. little faster, careful, however, not to pass the captain, who is supposed to have the poorest horse in the brigade, the captains being all old men. The buffaloes would now be some one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards in advance, the hunters all abreast, three or four feet apart, behind them. Then when the captains said: Ho! Ho!, all .would be off like a flash. Their guns are all loaded, each hunter has three or four bullets in his mouth, and bullet pouch and powder horn at his side. The guns were the old Hudson Bay Company's make, made especially for the trade, with long stock and flinltock, self-priming, and. carrying a ball, equal to the rifle and with force enough to pass through a buffalo bull. In loading the guns after the first shot, the powderhorn with a large opening was given three shakes in the closed left hand for the right charge of po.wder. The gun in the right hand, a ball was taken from the mouth Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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