14 Hunting the Grisly 



need an all-day s tramp to find them. There 

 was no difficulty in spying them the chief 

 trouble with forest game; for on the prairie 

 a buffalo makes no effort to hide and its black, 

 shaggy bulk looms up as far as the eye can 

 see. Sometimes they were found in small 

 parties of three or four individuals, sometimes 

 in bands of about two hundred, and again in 

 great herds of many thousands; and solitary 

 old bulls, expelled from the herds, were com 

 mon. If on broken land, among hills and ra 

 vines, there was not much difficulty in ap 

 proaching from the leeward ; for, though the 

 sense of smell in the buffalo is very acute, they 

 do not see well at a distance through their 

 overhanging frontlets of coarse and matted 

 hair. If, as was generally the case, they were 

 out on the open, rolling prairie, the stalking 

 was far more difficult. Every hollow, every 

 earth hummock and sagebush had to be used 

 as cover. The hunter wriggled through the 

 grass flat on his face, pushing himself along 

 for perhaps a quarter of a mile by his toes 

 and fingers, heedless of the spiny cactus. 

 When near enough to the huge, unconscious 

 quarry the hunter began firing, still keeping 

 himself carefully concealed. If the smoke 

 was blown away by the wind, and if the buf- 



