A Great Buffalo "Pot-Hunt" [pp. 215-223]

A GREAT BUFFA~O "POT-HUHT."
A GREA T BUFFALO "POT-HUNT."
BY H. M. ROBINSON.
I.
HERE have now almost disappeared from the
vast buffalo-ranges extending between the Mis souri and Saskatchewan Rivers the last vestiges of
what were once the most perfectly-organized, effec tive, and picturesque periodically-recurring hunting excursions known to any nomadic peoples. They
came within the lists, too, of what are technically
known to sportsmen as "pot-hunts "-forming the
almost entire support of certain well-defined border
communities. For over half a century regiments
of men-with a vast following of retainers and im pedimentza-have swept over the plains twice annu ally, bearing slaughter and destruction to its shaggy
denizens; the product being sufficient to maintain a
large colony with its various dependencies in plenty,
and even in comparative luxury, for the remainder
of the year. These hunts formed an almost certain
means of livelihood, and, for the amount of labor re quired, offered inducements far superior to those of
agriculture, or, indeed, any other pursuit which the
scope of country presented. Moreover, they were
especially adapted to the class with which they obtained-a class which, by reason of eminent fitness
and efficiency, seemed particularly designed by Nature for the congenial calling. Suggested first by
the necessities of a meagre handful of half-starved
immigrants, they became at length the main-stay of a
considerable population, and an important factor in
the commerce of the world. Wherever a buffalorobe is found; particularly in European markets,
there may be seen the business-card of this vast pothunt; sometimes represented by the robe itself,
again by certain hieroglyphics decorating its tanned
side. And this (to many) cabalistic advertisement
suggests the matter of the present paper.
In the year I8II the Earl of Selkirk purchased
of the Hudson Bay Company the ownership of a
vast tract of land, including, as a small part of the
whole, the ground occupied by a colony known, until
its recent purchase by the Dominion Government, as
Red River Settlement, near the foot of Lake Winnipeg, in British North America. On this territory
Earl Selkirk had formed the Utopian idea of settling
a populous colony, of which he should be the feudal
lord. A compulsory exodus of the inhabitants of the
mountainous regions of the county of Sutherland,
Scotland, taking place about that time, to make way
for the working of the sterner realities of the system
of land management which prevails on great estates
in this prosaic nineteenth century, an opportunity of
easily obtaining the desired colonists for the occupation of his new purchase was thus presented. The
first installment of colonists reached the bay coast in
the autumn of I8II, advanced inland in the following spring, and, at the confluence of the Assiniboine
and Red Rivers, about forty miles from the foot of
Lake Winnipeg, found themselves-metaphorically
speaking-at home. They were in the centre of the
American Continent, fifteen or sixteen hundred miles
in direct distance from the nearest city residence of
civilized man in America, and separated from the
country whence they came by an almost impassable
barrier.
Unfortunately for the successful founding of an
agricultural colony, such as Lord Selkirk had planned,
the rival French Canadian fur-companies, contending
for the possession of the territory with the Hud son Bay Company, chose to regard the new-comers
as invaders, whose presence was detrimental to their
interests; and the Indians also objected to the culti vation of their hunting-grounds. Between the per secutions of two such powerful enemies, the colo nists made, after the destruction of their crops and
dwellings the first year, but little attempt at agricult ure, and adopted, perforce, the nomadic life of the
country, visiting the plains twice annually in pursuit
of buffalo. This mode of life obtained until the co alition of all the fur-companies, in the year I82I, in creased the size of the colony by the acquisition of
all the French hunters and traders-who selected
rather to remain there than to return to Canada and rendered the peaceful pursuit of agriculture pos sible. But it occurred that, by intermarriage with
the aborigines, and ten years of the free, roving life
of the plain-hunter, agriculture had become distasteful to the younger portion of the sturdy Scots,
while the French, of course, still clung to old habits,
relying entirely upon the chase for a livelihood. So
it happened that, while a small minority of the first
colonists-those of advanced age-adopted the cultivation of the soil, the large majority of the eight
or ten thousand people forming the settlement followed the chase; thus presenting the anomaly of a
settled, civilized community subsisting by the pursuits common to nomadic life; in reality, civilized
nomads. From those early days up to the present,
when civilization by rapid strides has encroached
upon and overrun that isolated locality, the same
mode of life has obtained, with, until within the
past nine years, no very perceptible change. The
French portion of the colony rely entirely upon the
chase, if we may except certain miniature attempts
at farming; the Scotch alternating between seasons of labor with plough and hoe and the semiannual hunts; the half-breed offspring of the latter
instinctively adopting the chase. The world presents no other such incongruous picture.
It is not within the province of this paper to enter upon the details of buffalo-hunting as practised
upon the plains, and with which doubtless all are familiar; but it may not be devoid of interest to follow this particular hunt to its termination, as presenting certain peculiarities not found elsewhere.
The parties belonging to the summer hunt start
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