This pencil sketch by H.J. Warre captures the wild spirit of the buffalo hunt, which was an integral part of fur trade life. From buffalo meat was manufactured pemmican, essential for provisioning the canoe and boat brigades. Life at the provision posts which both companies established along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers was dominated by the annual buffalo hunt. The MÄtis excelled as buffalo hunters, the hunt becoming central to their distinct way of life. Every summer a cavalcade of MÄtis hunters and their families, comprising hundreds of Red River carts, left the settlement for the plains. Camp life and the hunt itself were conducted according to strict rules. The MÄtis were superb marksmen according to Hudson's Bay Company officer J.J. Hargrave:
After the camp has entered the country [where]... buffalo are known to be, no gun is permitted to be fired until in sight of the herd, the word of command is spoken by the captain authorizing the opening of the chase. The word given, the horsemen start in a body, loading and firing on horseback.... The hunters enter the herd with their mouths full of bullets. A handful of gunpowder is let fall from their "powder horns", a bullet is dropped from the mouth into the muzzle, a tap with the butt end of the firelock on the saddle causes the salivated bullet to adhere to the powder during the second necessary to depress the barrel, when the discharge is instantly effected without bringing the gun up to the shoulder.
