Alas and alack for the wayward
proclivities of our Utopians, predaceous creatures all, hunting was to
them as the breath of their nostrils, for to them, unlike the sons of
Adam, it was given--with their brothers resting upon the tranquil
river--to lay upon the altar of their homes alike the fruits of the
earth and the spoils of the chase.
THE BUFFALO HUNT.
What pen can paint the life of the "Chasseurs of the Great Plains," tell
of the gathering of the mighty Halfbreed clan going forth--each spring
and fall--in a tumult of carts and horsemen to their boundless
preserves, the home of the buffaloes, whose outrangers were the grizzly
bear, the branching elk, the flying antelope that skirted the great
columns, the last relieving the heavy rolling gait of the herds by a
speed and airy flight that mocked the eye to follow them, scouting the
dull trot of the prowling wolves--attent upon the motions of their best
purveyor--man.
What a going forth was theirs! this array of Hunters, with their wives
and little ones; this new tribe clad in semi-savage garniture, streaming
across the plains with cries of glee and joyance; the riders in their
"travoie" of arms and horse equipment--the vast "brigade" of carts and
bands of following horses, kept to the cavalcade by those reckless
jubilants--the boys--seeming a part of the creatures they bestrode.
Pages:
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241