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Four days on the Platte, and yet no buffalo! The wagons one morning had left the camp; Shaw and I were already on horse-back, but Henry Chatillon still sat cross-legged by the dead embers of the fire, playing with the lock of his rifle, while his sturdy pony stood quietly behind him, looking over his head.At last he got up, patted the neck of the pony (which, from an exaggerated appreciation of his merits, he had christened Five Hundred Dollar), and then mounted with a melancholy air.
“What is it, Henry?”
“Ah, I feel lonesome; I never been here before; but I see away yonder over the buttes, and down there on the prairie, black — all black with buffalo!”
In the afternoon he and I left the party in search of an antelope; until at the distance of a mile or two on the right, the tall is white wagons and the little black specks of horsemen were just visible, so slowly advancing that they seemed motionless; and far on the left rose the broken line of scorched,desolate sand-hills. The vast plain waved with tall rank grass that swept our horses’ bellies; it swayed to and fro in billows with the light breeze, and far and near, antelope and wolves were moving through it, the hairy backs of the latter alternately appearing and disappearing as they bounded awkwardly along; while the antelope, with the simple curiosity peculiar to them; would often approach us closely, their little horns and white throats just visible above the grass tops as they gazed eagerly at us with their round, black eyes.
I dismounted, and amused myself with firing at the wolves. Henry attentively scrutinized the surrounding landscape; at length he gave a shout,and called on me to mount again, pointing in the direction of the sand-hills. A mile and a half from us, two minute black specks slowly traversed the face of one of the bare, glaring declivities, and disappeared behind the summit.“Let us go!” cried Henry, belaboring the sides of Five Hundred Dollar; and we galloped rapidly .through the rank grass toward the hills.
From one of their openings descended a deep ravine, widening as it issued on the prairie. We entered it, and galloping up, in a moment were surrounded by the bleak sand-hills. Half of their steep sides were bare; the rest were scantily clothed with clumps of grass and various plants, conspicuous among which appeared the reptile-like prickly-pear. They were gashed with numberless ravines; and as the sky had suddenly darkened and a cold gusty wind arisen, the strange shrubs and the dreary hills looked doubly wild and desolate. But Henry’s face was all eagerness. He tore off a little hair from the piece of buffalo robe under his saddle, and threw it up, to show the course of the wind. It blew directly before us. The game were therefore to windward,and it was necessary to make our best speed to get round them.
We scrambled from this ravine, and galloping away through the hollows,soon found another, winding like a snake among the hills, and so deep that it completely concealed us. We rode up the bottom of it, glancing through the shrubbery at its edge, till Henry abruptly jerked his rein and slid out of his saddle. Full a quarter of a mile distant, on the outline of the farthest hill, a long procession of buffalo were walking in Indian file with the utmost gravity and deliberation; then more appeared, clambering from a hollow not far off,and ascending, one behind the other, the grassy slope of another hill; then a shaggy head and a pair of short, broken horns appeared, issuing out of a ravine close at hand, and with a slow, stately step, one by one, the enormous brutes came into view, taking their way across the valley, wholly unconscious of an enemy. In a moment Henry was worming his way, lying flat on the ground, through grass and prickly-pears, toward his unsuspecting victims.He had with him both my rifle and his own. He was soon out of sight, and still the buffalo kept issuing into the valley. For a long time all was silent; I sat holding his horse, and wondering what he was about, when suddenly, in rapid succession, came the sharp reports of the two rifles, and the whole line of buffalo, quickening their pace into a clumsy trot, gradually disappeared over the ridge of the hill. Henry rose to his feet, and stood looking after them.
“You have missed them,” said I.
“Yes,” said Henry; “let us go.” He descended into the ravine, loaded the rifles, and mounted his horse.
We rode up the hill after the buffalo. The herd was out of sight when we reached the top, but lying not far off was one quite lifeless, and another struggling in the death agony.
“You see I miss him!” remarked Henry. He had fired from a distance of more than a hundred and fifty yards, and both balls had passed through the lungs — the true mark in shooting buffalo.
The darkness increased, and a driving storm came on. Trying our horses to the horns of the victims, Henry began the bloody work of dissection. Old Hendrick recoiled with horror and indignation when I endeavored to tie the meat to the strings of rawhide always carried for this purpose, dangling at the back of the saddle. After some difficulty we overcame his scruples; and heavily burdened, we set out on our return. Scarcely had we issued upon the open prairie, when the pricking sleet came driving, gust upon gust, directly in our faces. It was strangely dark, though wanting still an hour of sunset.The freezing storm soon penetrated to the skin, but the uneasy trot of our horses kept us warm enough, as we forced them unwillingly in the teeth of the sleet and rain. The prairie in this place was hard and level. A flourishing colony of prairie dogs had burrowed into it in every direction, and the little mounds of fresh earth around their holes were about as numerous as the hills in a cornfield; but not a yelp was to be heard; not the nose of a single citizen was visible; all had retired to the depths of their burrows, and we envied them their dry and comfortable habitations. An hour’s hard riding showed us our tent dimly looming through the storm, one side puffed out by the force of the wind, and the other collapsed in proportion, while the horses stood shivering close around, and the wind kept up a dismal whistling in .the boughs of three old, half-dead trees above. Shaw sat on his saddle in the entrance, with a pipe in his mouth, and his arms folded, contemplating with cool satisfaction the piles of meat that we flung on the ground before him. A dark and dreary night succeeded; but the sun rose with a heat so sultry and languid that the captain excused himself on that account from waylaying an old buffalo bull, walking with stupid gravity over the prairie to drink at the river. So much for the climate of the Platte!
On the following morning Henry Chatillon, looking over the ocean-like expanse, saw near the foot of the distant hills something that looked like a band of buffalo. He was not sure, he said, but at all events, if they were buffalo, there was a fine chance for a race. Shaw and I at once determined to try the speed of our horses, and we set out at a trot. The game appeared about three miles distant.
As we advanced, the band of buffalo were transformed into certain clumps of tall bushes, dotting the prairie for a considerable distance. At this ludicrous termination of our chase, we turned back toward the party. We were skirting the brink of a deep ravine, when we saw Henry and the broadchested pony coming toward us at a gallop.
“Here’s old Papin and Frederic, down from Fort Laramie!” shouted Henry, long before he came up. We had for some days expected this encounter. Papin was the bourgeois of Fort Laramie. He had come down the river with the buffalo robes and the beaver, the produce of the last winter’s trading. I had among our baggage a letter which I wished to commit to their hands; so, requesting Henry to detain the boats if he could until my return, I set out after the wagons. They were about four miles in advance. In half an hour I overtook them, got the letter, trotted back upon the trail, and looking carefully as I rode, saw a patch of broken, storm-blasted trees, and moving near them some little black specks like men and horses. Arriving at the place, I found a strange assembly. The boats, eleven in number, deepladen with the skins, hugged close to the shore to escape being borne down by the swift current. The rowers, swarthy Mexicans, turned their brutish faces upward to look as I reached the bank. Papin sat in the middle of one of the boats upon the canvas covering that protected the robes. He was a stout, robust fellow, with a little gray eye that had a peculiarly sly twinkle. “Frederic” also stretched his tall, rawboned proportions close by the bourgeois. The “mountainmen” completed the group, some lounging in the boats, some strolling on shore,some attired in gayly painted buffalo robes like Indian dandies, some with hair saturated with red paint and glue, and one bedaubed with vermilion upon his forehead and each cheek.
I shook hands with the bourgeois and delivered the letter; then the boats swung around into the stream and floated away. They had reason for haste,for already the voyage from Fort Laramie had occupied a full month, and the river was growing daily more shallow. Fifty times a day the boats had been aground; indeed, those who navigate the Platte invariably spend half their time upon sand-bars. Two of these boats, the property of private traders, afterwards separating from the rest, got hope-lessly involved in the shallows, not very far from the Pawnee villages, and were soon surrounded by a swarm of the inhabitants. They carried off everything that they considered valu-able, including most of the robes, and amused themselves by tying up the men left on guard, and whipping them with sticks.
“Buffalo! buffalo!” It was but a grim old bull, roaming the prairie by himself; but there might be more behind the hills. Dreading the monotony of the camp, Shaw and I saddled our horses and set out with Henry Chatillon in search of the game. Henry, not intending to take part in the chase, but merely conducting us, carried his rifle with him, while we took our pistols. We rode for some five or six miles, and saw no living thing but wolves, snakes, and prairie dogs.
“This won’t do at all,” said Shaw.
“What won’t do?”
“There’s no wood about here to make a litter for the wounded man; I have an idea that one of us will need something of the sort before the day is over.”
There was some foundation for such an apprehension, for the ground was none of the best for a race, and grew worse continually as we proceeded;indeed it soon became desperately bad, consisting of abrupt hills and deep hollows, cut by frequent ravines not easy to pass. At length, a mile in advance, we saw a band of bulls. Some were scattered, grazing over a green declivity, while the rest were crowded more densely together in the wide hollow below. Making a circuit to keep out of sight, we rode toward them until we ascended a hill within a furlong of them, beyond which nothing intervened that could possibly screen us from their view. We dismounted behind the ridge just out of sight, drew our saddle-girths, examined our pistols, and mounting again rode over the hill and descended at a canter toward them, bending close to our horses’ necks. Instantly they took the alarm; those on the hill descended; those below gathered into a mass, and the whole got in motion, shouldering each other along at a clumsy gallop.We followed, spurring our horses to full speed; and as the herd rushed,crowding and trampling in terror through an opening in the hills, we were close at their heels, half suffocated by the clouds of dust. But as we drew near, their alarm and speed increased; our horses showed signs of the utmost fear, bounding violently aside as we approached, and refusing to enter among the herd. The buffalo now broke into several small bodies,scampering over the hills in different directions, and I lost sight of Shaw; neither of us knew where the other had gone. Old Pontiac ran like a frantic elephant up hill and down hill, his ponderous hoofs striking the prairie like sledge-hammers. He showed a curious mixture of eagerness and terror,straining to overtake the panic-stricken herd, but constantly recoiling in dismay as we drew near. The fugitives, indeed, offered no very attractive spectacle, with their enormous size and weight, their shaggy manes, and the tattered remnants of their last winter’s hair covering their backs in irregular shreds and patches and flying off in the wind as they ran. At length I urged my horse close behind a bull, and after trying in vain, by blows and spurring, to bring him alongside, I shot a bullet into the buffalo from this disadvantageous position. At the report, Pontiac swerved so much that I was again thrown a little behind the game. The bullet failed to disable the bull. The herd ran up a hill and I followed in pursuit. As Pontiac rushed headlong down on the other side, I saw Shaw and Henry descending the hollow on the right at a leisurely gallop; and in front, the buffalo were just disappearing behind the crest of the next hill, their short tails erect and their hoofs twinkling through a cloud of dust.
At that moment I heard Shaw and Henry shouting to me; but the muscles of a stronger arm than mine could not have checked at once the furious course of Pontiac. A stronger and hardier brute never trod the prairie; but the novel sight of the buffalo filled him with terror, and when at full speed he was almost uncontrollable. Gaining the top of the ridge, I saw nothing of the buffalo; they had all vanished amid the intricacies of the hills and hollows. Reloading my pistols in the best way I could, I galloped on until I saw them again scuttling along at the base of the hill. Down went old Pontiac among them, scat-tering them to the right and left, and then we had another long chase. About a dozen bulls were before us, scouring over the hill, rushing down the declivities with tremendous weight and impetuosity,and then laboring with a weary gallop upward. Still Pontiac, in spite of spurring and beating, would not close with them. One bull at length fell a little behind the rest, and by dint of much effort I urged my horse within six or eight yards of his side. His back was darkened with sweat, and he was panting heavily, while his tongue lolled out a foot from his jaws. Gradually I came up abreast of him, urging Pontiac with leg and rein nearer to his side,when suddenly he did what buffalo in such circumstances will always do:he slackened his gallop, and turning toward us with an aspect of mingled rage and distress, lowered his huge shaggy head for a charge. Pontiac, with a snort, leaped aside in terror, nearly throwing me to the ground. I fired a bullet after the bull, which had resumed his flight; then drew rein, and determined to rejoin my companions. It was high time. The breath blew hard from Pontiac’s nostrils, an the sweat rolled in big drops down his sides; I myself felt as if drenched in warm water. I looked round for some indications to show me where I was, and what course I ought to pursue. I might as well have looked for landmarks in the midst of the ocean. How many miles I had run or in what direction, I had no idea; and around me the prairie was rolling in steep swells and pitches, without a single distinctive feature to guide me. I had a little compass hung at my neck; and ignorant that the Platte at this paint diverged considerably from its easterly course, I thought that by keeping to the northward I should certainly reach it. So I turned and rode about two hours in that direction. The prairie changed as I advanced,softening away into easier undu-lations, but nothing like the Platte appeared,nor any sign of a human being; the same wild endless expanse lay around me still; and to all appearance I was as far from my object as ever. I began now to consider myself in danger of being lost Looking round, it occurred to me that the buffalo might prove my best guides. I soon found one of the paths made by them in their passage to the river; it ran nearly at right angles to my course; but turning my horse’s head in the direction it indicated, his freer gait and erect ears assured me that I was right.
But in the meantime my ride had been by no means a solitary one. The whole face of the country was dotted far and wide with countless hundreds of buffalo. They trooped along in files and columns, bulls, cows, and calves,on the green faces of the declivities in front. They scrambled away over the hills to the right and left; and far off, the pale blue swells in the extreme distance were dotted with innumerable specks. Sometimes I surprised shaggy old bulls grazing alone, or sleeping behind the ridges I ascended. They would leap up at my approach, stare to stupidly at me through their tangled manes, and then gallop heavily away. The antelope were very numerous;and as they are always bold when in the neighborhood of buffalo, they would approach quite near to look at me, gazing intently with their great round eyes, then suddenly leap aside and stretch lightly away over the prairie as swiftly as a racehorse. Squalid, ruffian-like wolves sneaked through the hollows and sandy ravines. Several times I passed through villages of prairie dogs, which sat, each at the mouth of his burrow, holding his paws before him in a supplicating attitude and yelping away most vehemently, enerogetically whisking his little tail with every squeaking cry he uttered. Prairie dogs are not fastidious in their choice of companions; various long, checkered snakes were sunning themselves in the midst of the village, and demure little gray owls, with a large white ring around each eye, were perched side by side with the rightful inhabitants. The prairie teemed with life. Again and again I looked toward the crowded hillsides, and was sure I saw horsemen; and riding near, with a mixture of hope and dread, for Indians were abroad, I found them transformed into a group of buffalo. There was nothing in human shape amid all this vast congregation of brute forms.
When I turned down the buffalo path, the prairie seemed changed; only a wolf or two glided past at intervals, never looking to the right or left.Being now free from anxiety, I was at leisure to observe minutely the objects around me; and here, for the first time, I noticed insects wholly different from any of the varieties found farther to the eastward. Gaudy butterflies fluttered about my horse’s head; strangely formed beetles were crawling upon plants that I had never seen before; multitudes of lizards, too, were darting like lightning over the sand.
I had run to a great distance from the river. It cost me a long ride on the buffalo path before I saw from the ridge of a sand-hill the pale surface of the Platte glistening in the midst of its desert valleys, and the faint outline of the hills beyond waving along the sky. From where I stood, not a tree nor a bush nor a living thing was visible throughout the whole extent of the sun-scorched landscape. In half an hour I came upon the trail, not far from the river; and seeing that the party had not yet passed, I turned east-ward to meet them, old Pontiac’s long, swinging trot again assur-ing me that I was right in doing so.Having been slightly ill on leaving camp in the morning, six or seven hours of rough riding had fatigued me extremely. I soon stopped, therefore; flung my saddle to the ground, and with my head resting on it, and my horse’s trailrope tied loosely to my arm, lay awaiting the arrival of the party. At length the white wagon coverings rose from the verge of the plain. Almost at the same moment two horsemen appeared coming down from the hills. They were Shaw and Henry, who had searched for me a while in the morning, but well knowing the futility of the attempt in such a broken country, had placed themselves on the top of the highest hill they could find, and picketing their horses near them, as a signal to me, had lain down and fallen asleep.
( Francis Parkman )
Francis Parkman (1823-1893), an American historian, was born in Boston,Massachusetts. At the age of eight years he went to live with his grandfather on a wild tract of land not far from Boston, and there he developed the fondness for outdoor life shown in all his writings. By the time he had finished college he had resolved to write the history of the French in America. For this he needed an intimate knowledge of Indian life. To gain this knowledge he made the journey described in The Oregon Trail, from which “The Buffalo” is taken. Parkman left Boston in April, 1846, accompanied by Quincy Adams Shaw, a relative, and went first to St. Louis. This trip, made by railroad, steamboat, and stage, took two weeks. There they engaged guides and bought an outfit, including presents for the Indians. After eight days on a river steamboat they reached Independence,Missouri, where the land journey began. The entire trip took fie months.
At this time there were no states west of the Missouri River, nor were there any white settlers. From Canada to what is now Oklahoma tribes of savage Indians roamed, hunting the buffalo, and warring among themselves. Two great overland routes led across this immense wild stretch from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. The southern, known as the Santa Fé trail, carried a large trade between the East and Mexico and southern California; the northern, or Oregon trail, was commonly used by emigrants on their way to the northwest coast.
melancholy : mournful, sad
ravine : steep valley
contemplating : thinking hard about something
languid : making one feel like it is hard to move
declivity : steep hill
canter : a slow gallop
impetuosity : force
squalid : dirty, fowl, filth
A) Answer the following questions.
1) What kind of picture do you see when you read the fourth paragraph?
2) What happened on the first afternoon’s hunting trip
3) What did you learn about prairie animals from this story?
4) What insects does the author mention?
5) How does travel at the time of this story differ from the present time?
6) How did Henry determine the direction of the wind?
B) Vocabulary practice — Choose 5 words from the word list and use each in a sentence which shows that you understand the meaning.
1) ______________________________________________________________
2) ______________________________________________________________
3) ______________________________________________________________
4) ______________________________________________________________
5) ______________________________________________________________
C) Summary — Write a brief summary for each section of the story.
1) Bringing Home the Meat ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2) An Unsuccessful Hunt ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3) Lost on the Great Plains ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________