5i EXPEDITION TO THE 



racier, so unlike that of buffaloes in general, excited our 

 surprize and admiration ; and accordingly we determined 

 to spare him, and see how long he would continue to tra- 

 vel with us. But the noble animal offered too strong a 

 temptation to the Indians ; seeing him stop at the same place 

 where we had halted, a few of them, especially the 

 youngest of the party, ran up to him, and in a few mo- 

 ments several balls, and perhaps a dozen of arrows, had re- 

 duced the animal to the last gasp. They then approached 

 on all sides, and while he was engaged in keeping off those 

 on his left, the youths on his right would come so near to 

 him as to draw his attention to them ; the animal appear- 

 ed galled, his rage was extreme, but his weakness was 

 equally so. At length some of them came very near to him, 

 and caught hold of his tail ; at that moment he was observ- 

 ed to be tottering ; they all drew off, the animal fell, and 

 after two or three convulsive throes he expired ; a shout 

 from the Indians announced the death of their victim. 

 This seemed to be a schooling for the youngest of their 

 party, a few of whom were mere boys. Mr. Seymour 

 took a sketch of this singular diversion, which is repre- 

 sented in Plate 7 ; it is taken at the moment when the 

 animal is tottering, but it does not express all the fire and 

 rase which he manifested to the last. 



When we stopped for breakfast the next morning, we 

 heard some guns fired in the woods, which convinced us 

 that some of the marauders were still in our vicinity ; we 

 continued our journey, however, without any impediment, 

 avoiding the firing of guns, the separation of any of the 

 party, or any other measure which might warn the In- 

 dians of our situation. We encamped at an early hour. 

 Our journey across the prairies was extremely unpleasant; 

 there was nothing to relieve the monotony of the scene ; 



