The Lordly Buffalo. 2 59 



scarcely made any marks in the hard ground. We rode up 

 the ravine, carefully examining the soil for nearly half an 

 hour, however ; finally, as we passed the mouth of a little 

 side coulie, there was a plunge and crackle through the 

 bushes at its head, and a shabby-looking old bull bison 

 galloped out of it and, without an instant's hesitation, 

 plunged over a steep bank into a patch of rotten, broken 

 ground which led around the base of a high butte. So 

 quickly did he disappear that we had not time to dis- 

 mount and fire. Spurring our horses we galloped up to 

 the brink of the cliff down which he had plunged ; it was 

 remarkable that he should have gone down it unhurt. 

 From where we stood we could see nothing ; so, getting 

 our horses over the broken ground as fast as possible, we 

 ran to the butte and rode round it, only to see the buffalo 

 come out of the broken land and climb up the side of 

 another butte over a quarter of a mile off. In spite of 

 his great weight and cumbersome, heavy-looking gait, he 

 climbed up the steep bluff with ease and even agility, and 

 when he had reached the ridge stood and looked back at 

 us for a moment ; while so doing he held his head high 

 up, and at that distance his great shaggy mane and huge 

 fore-quarter made him look like a lion. In another 

 second he again turned away and made off; and, being 

 evidently very shy and accustomed to being harassed by 

 hunters, must have travelled a long distance before stop- 

 ping, for we followed his trail for some miles until it got 

 on such hard, dry ground that his hoofs did not leave a 

 scrape in the soil, and yet did not again catch so much as 

 a glimpse of him. 



