Tchatka was accustomed to lead his people, and whither so many other renowned chiefs have conducted their tribes, whether to war or to the chase. A multitude of tolerably high hills, and of plateaus and prairies bear the names of some brave or other who distinguished himself near them. It is here especially that the greatest and finest hunting, of buffalo, elk and deer, is found.
I have often taken part in these, either riding with them in the chase or simply as a peaceable onlooker. Sometimes, motionless at my post, seated on my horse or on the flowery sward of the plain or on some height, I would watch the vast and variegated scene and the admirable skill of the Indians. I would share in spirit in all their ardor and their
movements, as if I had really been one of the actors. There
is no more charming nor more interesting view. The desert, whose profound solitude is usually silent and monotonous, is now transformed into a vast arena, full of life and movement; the air resounds in all directions with the bellowings of the furious buffalo, flying with all their might to escape destruction. The ground trembles under the dull sound of their formidable footfalls. It is a chorus of cries of hunters animating their ardent coursers to attack the fat beast they have selected; it is sudden, confused and irregular gunshots; it is columns and clouds of dust raised by the buffalo and the horsemen. Taken as a whole, it is a spectacle of the highest interest to him who witnesses it, and it recurs afterward to the memory with always fresh pleasure.
I was once present at a great hunt in which upward of 6oo buffalo were laid low by about aoo Flathead and Pend d'Oreille hunters. In the same spot I saw all the Indians in the camp prostrated in adoration, with eyes and hands raised toward heaven, offering their thanksgivings to the divine and paternal providence of the Lord, who had granted them, in his goodness, so abundant a chase.
In this kind of hunt, or carnage, the entire animal is used up, even to the bones; these are cracked and broken open for soup. The marrow of the bones is the finest part of