2-16 THE SPOILS. 



road, append from and make a sporting finish to the 

 bells of drawing-room, dining-room, and study. Mr 

 Bayard then, in the most scientifically sylvan way, took 

 out the tongue, while Mr Canterall availed himself of 

 some of the meat ; when, as we were too far removed to 

 get either his skin, the best of the meat, or his marrow 

 bones to camp, very reluctantly I left such a waste of 

 good things to be eaten by wolves, or to enrage the abo 

 riginal redskin of the soil at the wasteful destruction, 

 by the white man, of the animal from whose herds were 

 derived the chief subsistence of Indian tribes. 



A more splendid beast of chase than the one in ques 

 tion could not be, nor can there well be an animal of 

 greater muscular power and bone than is the bison on 

 the western prairies. Added to an enormous depth of 

 carcase, the ribs are immensely expansive, while the 

 quarters of the animal are indeed "rounds of beef," as 

 circular as they can well be. His hocks are peculiarly 

 strong, while between the hock, knee, and fetlock, the 

 leg is short, and the bone very large. The head, neck, 

 and hump are so very heavy that the animal gives 

 a sort of lift with his head to assist the action of 

 his fore legs when he starts into a canter. By way 

 of proving the immense width of chest and roundness 

 of figure that the bison has, I cannot do better than 

 tell the reader that in all the bulls we killed during our 

 hunt, when lying dead on their side, the uppermost fore 

 leg stood straight out, in a direct line from the body, the 

 foot. not even inclining to the ground. During this run 

 at my first bison, in crossing a small creek of water, 

 Mr Canterall said he rode over an otter in the rushes. 

 He might have done so, but, as I crossed within ten 

 yards of the same place at the same time, and saw 



