A BOMBARDMENT FROM THE SADDLE. 255 



We were close at his heels when the level of the 

 plain was reached, and pursuer and pursued shot out 

 upon it together. A large herd, feeding not five hun- 

 dred yards away, was speedily in full flight north- 

 ward. "A stern chase is a long chase," is no less 

 true in buffalo hunting than in nautical matters. Af- 

 ter considerable experience in the sport, I would rec- 

 ommend amateurs to get as near their game as pos- 

 sible before starting, and then try their horses' full 

 metal. Once by the side of the game, he can keep 

 there to the end. And so, after a terrible chase, 

 when at times we had almost despaired of overtaking 

 the old fellow, we now found it easy to keep along- 

 side. 



Our bull was a huge one, even among his species, 

 and in such moments of excitement the imagination 

 seems to have a trick of entering the chambers of the 

 eye, and sliding its mirrors into a sort of double fo- 

 cus arrangement. With blood boiling until my heart 

 seemed to bob up and down on its surface, I found 

 myself riding parallel with the brute, and had I never 

 seen him afterward, would have been almost willing 

 to make oath that his size could be represented only 

 by throwing a covering of buffalo robes over an ele- 

 phant. 



Every one in the party was firing, some having 

 dropped their reins to use their carbines, and others 

 yet guiding their horses with one hand, while they fired 

 their holster revolvers with the other. Shooting from 

 the saddle, with a horse going at full speed, needs 

 practice to enable one to hit any thing smaller than a 



mammoth. You point the weapon, but at the instant 

 14 



