194 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



more wanton of place than the savage himself, possessed 

 of invincible courage and unlimited resources, and feel- 

 ing adventure a part of life itself, has already penetrated 

 the remotest fastnesses, and wandered over the most ex- 

 tended plains. Where the live lightning leaps from 

 rock to rock, opening yawning caverns to the dilating 

 eye, or spends its fury upon the desert, making it a 

 sheet of fire, there have been his footsteps ; and there 

 has the buifalo smarted beneath his prowess, and kissed 

 the earth. 



The child of fortune from the " old world," the fa- 

 vorite of courts, has abandoned his home and affectations, 

 and sought, among these western wilds, the enjoyment 

 of nature in her own loveliness. The American hunter 

 frolics over them as a boy enjoying his Saturday sport. 

 The Indian — like his fathers, ever restless — scours the 

 mountain and the plain ; and men of whatever condition 

 here meet equal^ as sportsmen; and their great feats of 

 honor and of arms, are at the sacrifice of the buffalo. 



In their appearance, the buffalos present a singular 

 mixture of the ferocious and comical. At a first glance 

 they excite mirth ; they appear to be the sleek-blooded 

 kine, so familiar to the farmyard, but muffled about the 

 shoulders in a coarse shawl, and wearing a mask and 

 beard, as if in some outlandish disguise. 



Their motions, too, are novel. They dash off, tail 

 up, shaking their great woolly heads, and planting their 

 feet under them, with a swinging gait and grotesque pre 



