24 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



when they procured some bread for during 

 the final fortnight of the hunt they had been 

 without flour or vegetables of any kind, or 

 even coffee, and had subsisted on fresh meat 

 " straight." Nevertheless, it was a very 

 healthy, as well as a very pleasant and excit- 

 ing experience ; and I doubt if any of those 

 who took part in it will ever forget their great 

 buffalo-hunt on the Brazos. 



My friend, Gen. W. H. Walker, of Virginia, 

 had an experience in the early '50*8 with buf- 

 faloes on the upper Arkansas River, which 

 gives some idea of their enormous numbers at 

 that time. He was camped with a scouting 

 party on the banks of the river, and had gone 

 out to try to shoot some meat. There were 

 many buffaloes in sight, scattered, according 

 to their custom, in large bands. When he 

 was a mile or two away from the river a dull 

 roaring sound in the distance attracted his 

 attention, and he saw that a herd of buffalo 

 far to the south, away from the river, had 

 been stampeded and was running his way. 

 He knew that if he was caught in the open 

 by the stampeded herd his chance for life 

 would be small, and at once ran for the river. 

 By desperate efforts he reached the breaks in 

 the sheer banks just as the buffaloes reached 

 them, and got into a position of safety on the 

 pinnacle of a little bluff. From this point of 

 vantage he could see the entire plain. To 

 the very verge of the horizon the brown 

 masses of the buffalo bands showed through 

 the dust clouds, coming on with a thunderous 



