Some gathered quantities of walnuts, hickory-nuts, and shelbarks, and the hunters wrought havoc among the vast herds of game.

During the early winter one party of twenty men that went up Caney Fork on a short trip, killed one hundred and five bears, seventy-five buffaloes, and eighty-seven deer, and brought the flesh and hides back to the stockades in canoes; so that through the winter there was no lack of jerked and smoke-dried meat.
The hunters were very accurate marksmen; game was plenty, and not shy, and so they got up close and rarely wasted a shot.

Moreover, their smallbore rifles took very little powder--in fact the need of excessive economy in the use of ammunition when on their long hunting-trips was one of the chief reasons for the use of small bores.

They therefore used comparatively little ammunition.

Nevertheless, by the beginning of winter both powder and bullets began to fail.