In Buffalo Days 
we would bring in the desired meat. The 
troops would march during the day, for the 
commanding officer had no notion of waiting 
in camp merely for fresh meat, and we were 
to go out, hunt, and overtake the command 
at their night’s camp. 
The next day after we had reached the 
buffalo range, we started out long before 
the eastern sky was gray, and were soon 
riding off over the chilly prairie. The trail 
which the command was to follow ran a little 
north of east, and we kept to the south and 
away from it, believing that in this direction 
we would find the game, and that if we 
started them they would run north or north- 
west—against the wind, so that we could kill 
them near the trail. Until some time after 
the sun had risen, we saw nothing larger than 
antelope; but at length, from the top of a high 
hill, we could see, far away to the east, dark 
dots on the prairie, which we knew could only 
be buffalo. They were undisturbed too; for, 
though we watched them for some time, we 
could detect no motion in their ranks. 
It took us nearly two hours to reach the 
low, broken buttes on the north side of which 
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