268 The Lordly Buffalo. 



Before I had gone a hundred yards, I noticed in the 

 soft soil at the bottom the round prints of a bison's 

 hoofs ; and immediately afterwards got a glimpse of 

 the animal himself, as he fed slowly up the course of 

 the ravine, some distance ahead of me. The wind was 

 just right, and no ground could have been better for 

 stalking. Hardly needing to bend down, I walked up 

 behind a small sharp-crested hillock, and peeping over, 

 there below me, not fifty yards off, was a great bison bull. 

 He was walking along, grazing as he walked. His glossy 

 fall coat was in fine trim, and shone in the rays of the 

 sun ; while his pride of bearing showed him to be in 

 the lusty vigor of his prime. As I rose above the crest 

 of the hill, he held up his head and cocked his tail in 

 the air. Before he could go off, I put the bullet in be- 

 hind his shoulder. The wound was an almost immedi- 

 ately fatal one, yet with surprising agility for so large 

 and heavy an animal, he bounded up the opposite side 

 of the ravine, heedless of two more balls, both of which 

 went into his flank and ranged forwards, and disappeared 

 over the ridge at a lumbering gallop, the blood pouring 

 from his mouth and nostrils. We knew he could not 

 go far, and trotted leisurely along on his bloody trail ; 

 and in the next gully we found him stark dead, lying 

 almost on his back, having pitched over the side when 

 he tried to go down it. His head was a remarkably 

 fine one, even for a fall buffalo. He was lying in a very 

 bad position, and it was most tedious and tiresome work 

 to cut it off and pack it out. The flesh of a cow or 

 calf is better eating than is that of a bull ; but the so- 



