Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/144178
egends of the Hunt L By John Seerey-Lester J No one was fully aware of the buffalo's impending demise, not even the countless hidemen who had rushed out West to hunt the huge beasts. S ohn and George rode silently across the snow-covered plain, staying to the windward side of the big herd. The buffalo were slowly moving toward a gully where the two men, Sharps rifles in hand, had decided to wait downwind of the oncoming animals. Their plan was to pick off the buffalo one at a time as they emerged from the gully. This was a new hunting technique called "getting a stand." The lead bull would be shot first and hopefully drop where it had P O R T I N G C 24 L A S S I stood. The other buffalo would come to examine their fallen comrade, unaware of danger. Then the hunters would pick off the others as they milled around. The buffalo would become confused and the hunters could kill as many of them as they wished, without moving from their position. Meat was the main prize of buffalo hunters before 1871, but then the hides took on a value of their own. It was the beginning of the Great Buffalo Hunt, when hide C S