As Hendry advanced the herds were so dense as sometimes
to retard his progress. Other writers tell of the vast numbers of
these creatures. Alexander Henry, the younger, writing on April
1, 1801, says that in a river swollen by spring floods, drowned
buffalo floated past his camp in one continuous line for two days
and two nights. In prairie fires thousands were blinded and would
go tumbling down banks into streams or lie down to die. One
morning the bellowing of buffaloes awakened Henry and he looked
out to see the prairie black. "The ground was covered at every
point of the compass, as far as the eye could reach, and every
animal was in motion."
Daily as Hendry advanced he saw smoke in the distance and his
Indians told him that it came from the camp of the Blackfeet. He
reached them on Monday the 14th of October. When four miles away
he was stopped by mounted scouts who asked whether he came as a
friend or as an enemy. He was taken to the camp of two hundred
tents pitched in two rows, and was led through the long passage
between the tents to the big tent of the chief of whom he had
heard much.
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