94 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



crept up to them alone, whilst the rest lay in wait for 

 a chance as they passed. But the young one missed 

 his mark, and the herd went off in the wrong direc- 

 tion, out of reach of the two in ambush. 



Ill luck ruled the day, but La Ronde said, " Try 

 it again ;" and as the last herd had not fairly seen 

 their enemies, they pulled up about a mile distant, 

 and began to feed sloAvly along. After alternately 

 racing at full speed, when out of view, and crawling 

 stealthily over exposed places for miles, continually 

 finding the animals had moved off by the time the 

 place where they were last seen was reached, the 

 hunters succeeded in ensconcing themselves behind a 

 hillock on the other side of which the buffalo were 

 feeding, and moving on round the base tow^ards them. 



It Avas now La Honde's turn to have the first shot, 

 and as soon as the fore-quarters of the leader of the 

 band m^oved slowdy into view, some twenty yards 

 off, he fired. As the animal did not drop instantly, 

 Cheadle, w^ho was determined not to return empty- 

 handed after all, and had covered him carefully, 

 dropped him with a second shot behind the shoulder. 

 La Ronde w^as highly indignant at his conduct, and 

 declared it w^as unsportsmanlike, but was much cha- 

 grined to find, on cutting up the animal, that his own 

 shot had merely passed through the shoulder-blade 

 without breaking it, and the animal w^ould doubtless 

 have escaped but for the second bullet, which passed 

 through the heart. This beast proved a splendid 

 young bull, of three years old, with a magnificent 

 skin, and a mane wdth hair half a yard in length. 



