88 THE OX TRIBE, 



in the meantime, had climbed up into trees, where they 

 thought themselves secure. The Buffalo, after this first 

 achievement, still appeared to take his course in the same 

 direction, and, therefore, could not have failed in his way 

 to pay his compliments to me, who all the while was 

 coming towards him, and, in the narrow pass formed by 

 the boughs and branches of the trees, and on account of 

 the rustling noise these made against my saddle and 

 baggage, had neither seen nor heard anything of what 

 had passed; as in my way I frequently stopped to take up 

 plants, and put them into my handkerchief, I generally 

 kept behind my companions. 



" The sergeant had brought two horses with him for 

 the journey. One of them had already been despatched, 

 and the other now stood just in the way of the Buffalo, 

 who was going out of the wood. As soon as the Buffalo 

 saw this second horse, he became more outrageous than 

 before, and he attacked it with such fury, that he not 

 only drove his horns into the horse's breast, and out 

 again through the very saddle, but also threw it to the 

 ground with such violence, that it died that very instant, 

 and most of its bones were broken. Just at the moment 

 that he was occupied with this latter horse, I came up to 

 the opening, where the wood was so thick that I had 

 neither room to turn my horse, nor to get on one side ; I 

 was, therefore, obliged to abandon him to his fate, and 

 take refuge in a tolerably high tree, up which I climbed. 



<c The Buffalo, having finished this his second exploit, 

 suddenly turned round, and shaped his course the same 

 way which we had intended to take. 



" From the height of my situation in the tree, I could 

 plainly perceive one of the horses quite dead; the other 



