The Lordly Buffalo. 2 5i 



proved too clumsy to get out of the way, and was 

 caught on the horns, one of which entered its flank, 

 while the other inflicted a huge, bruised gash across 

 the man's thigh, tearing the muscles all out. Both 

 horse and rider were flung to the ground with tremen- 

 dous violence. The horse had to be killed, and the man 

 died in a few hours from the shock, loss of blood, and 

 internal injuries. Such an accident, however, is very 

 exceptional. 



My brother was in at the death of the great southern 

 herds in 1877, and had a good deal of experience in buffalo 

 hunting ; and once or twice was charged by old bulls, but 

 never had any difficulty in either evading the charge or else 

 killing the brute as it came on. My cousin, John Roose- 

 velt, also had one adventure with a buffalo, in which he 

 received rather a fright. He had been out on foot with 

 a dog and had severely wounded a buffalo bull, which 

 nevertheless, with the wonderful tenacity of life and 

 ability to go over apparently inaccessible places that 

 this species shows, managed to clamber up a steep, 

 almost perpendicular, cliff. My cousin climbed up after 

 it, with some difficulty ; on reaching the top he got 

 his elbows over and drew himself up on them only to 

 find the buffalo fronting him with lowered head not a 

 dozen feet off. Immediately upon seeing him it cocked 

 up its tail and came forward. He was clinging with 

 both hands to the edge and could not use his rifle; so, 

 not relishing what was literally a tete-a-tete, he promptly 

 let go and slid or rather rolled head over heels to the foot 

 of the cliff, not hurting himself much in the sand, though 



