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Part of Jorrocks's half-quartern loaf was bartered with the captain of an East Indiaman for a slice of buffalo-beef. The dentist exchanged some veal sandwiches with a Jew for ham ones; a lawyer from the Borough offered two slices of toast for a hard-boiled egg; in fact there was a petty market "ouvert" held. "Now, Tomkins, where's the bottle?" demanded Jenkins.
The few deer that were killed from time to time offered us but poor sport, and their meat was not sufficient for our supply. Of bacon we were heartily tired, and we longed for fresh buffalo-beef.
That day our hunters dined, for the first time, on fresh buffalo-beef. After dinner they were not idle, but spent the remainder of the evening in drying a portion of the meat over a fire. They had resolved to encamp on the spot for the night, and follow up the trail in the morning.
We did not think of going to rest again until each of us had eaten about two pounds of fresh buffalo-beef, and what with the excitement of this odd adventure, and the jokes that followed not a few of them levelled at our quondam guard it was near morning before we closed our eyes again in sleep. We awoke more confident of our future. We had now provision enough and thousands of pounds to spare.
This soon froze hard, and the mixture that resembled "potted meat," was now ready for use, and would keep for an indefinite time without the least danger of spoiling. Buffalo-beef, moose-meat, or venison of any sort, thus prepared, is called "pemmican," and is more portable in this shape than any other.
The camp-guards for the time being acted as cooks; and, though coffee and flour both ran short and finally gave out, fresh meat of every kind was abundant. The camp was never without buffalo-beef, deer and antelope venison, wild turkeys, prairie-chickens, quails, ducks, and rabbits.
Our hunters wanted to taste buffalo-beef; and the chase after these would give them practice, which might serve them afterwards. How, then, were they to set about it? "Why, run them, of course," counselled the ready Francois, with the air of an experienced buffalo-hunter. Now, there are several methods of hunting buffaloes, practised upon the prairies, both by whites and Indians.
This soon froze hard, and the mixture that resembled "potted meat," was now ready for use, and would keep for an indefinite time without the least danger of spoiling. Buffalo-beef, moose-meat, or venison of any sort, thus prepared, is called "pemmican," and is more portable in this shape than any other.
More of the same meat buffalo-beef, it appeared was seen in the wheelbarrow; its other freight being one or two greasy bags, a brace of knapsacks, a cartouche box and belt, two ordnance spades, with the guns a "regulation" rifle and musket lying across the top of the load.
The tongues, when dried, are really superior to those of common beeves, and, indeed, the same may be said of the other parts, but there is a better and worse in buffalo-beef, according to the age and sex of the animal. "Fat cow" is a term for the super-excellent, and by "poor bull," or "old bull," is meant a very unpalatable article, only to be eaten by the hunter in times of necessity.
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