20 Hunting the Grisly 



Waiting until the beasts were in close range, 

 they opened a rapid fire from their heavy 

 breech-loading rifles, yelling at the top of 

 their voices. For a moment the result seemed 

 doubtful. The line thundered steadily down 

 on them; then it swayed violently, as two or 

 three of the brutes immediately in their front 

 fell beneath the bullets, while their neighbors 

 made violent efforts to press off sidewise. 

 Then a narrow wedge-shaped rift appeared in 

 the line, widening as it came closer, and the 

 buffaloes, shrinking from their foes in front, 

 strove desperately to edge away from the dan- 

 gerous neighborhood: shouts and shots were 

 redoubled; the hunters were almost choked 

 by the cloud of dust, through which they could 

 see the stream of dark huge bodies passing 

 within rifle-length on either side; and in a 

 moment the peril was over, and the two men 

 were left alone on the plain, unharmed, though 

 with their nerves terribly shaken. The herd 

 careered on toward the horizon, save five in- 

 dividuals which had been killed or disabled 

 by the shots. 



On another occasion, when my brother was 

 out with one of his friends, they fired at a 

 small herd containing an old bull; the bull 

 charged the smoke, and the whole herd fol- 



