70 THE STORY OP THE TRAPPER 



to one against himself, and the only advantages over 

 brute strength the dexterity of his own aim. 



Man was the least cruel of the buffalo s foes. Far 

 crueler havoc was worked by the prairie fire and the 

 fights for supremacy in the leadership of the herd and 

 the sleuths of the trail and the wild stampedes often 

 started by nothing more than the shadow of a cloud on 

 the prairie. Natural history tells of nothing sadder 

 than a buffalo herd overtaken by a prairie fire. Flee 

 as they might, the fiery hurricane was fleeter ; and when 

 the flame swept past, the buffalo were left staggering 

 over blackened wastes, blind from the fire, singed of 

 fur to the raw, and mad with a thirst they were help 

 less to quench. 



In the fights for leadership of the herd old age 

 went down before youth. Colonel Bedson s daughter 

 has often told the writer of her sheer terror as a child 

 when these battles took place among the buffalo. The 

 first intimation of trouble was usually a boldness 

 among the young fellows of maturing strength. On 

 the rove for the first year or two of their existence 

 these youngsters were hooked and butted back into place 

 as a rear-guard; and woe to the fellow whose vanity 

 tempted him within range of the leader s sharp, prun- 

 ing-hook horns ! Just as the wolf aimed for the 

 throat or leg sinews of a victim, so the irate buffalo 

 struck at the point most vulnerable to his sharp, curved 

 horn the soft flank where a quick rip meant torture 

 and death. 



Comes a day when the young fellows refuse to be 

 hooked and hectored to the rear ! Then one of the bold 

 est braces himself, circling and guarding and wheeling 

 and keeping his lowered horns in line with the head 



