278 A SUGGESTION DECLINED. 



formed us they had only been out a few days, had seen 

 no Indians, and had killed two buffaloes, concluding their 

 information with a moderate request to me to ride after 

 the buffalo they had been in pursuit of, then at least two 

 miles off, and head him back. This I respectfully de 

 clined, when, on our road back to the waggon, Bayard 

 told me that the thing in the extreme distance that de 

 ceived him was the whiter (certainly not white) shirt of 

 one of the men, which having found the light very con 

 siderably from a rent in his garment, it at a distance re 

 sembled the breechclout of the red man, and induced him 

 to make the mistake. 



Soon after this we sighted another single wild-looking 

 and unsettled bull, no doubt one of the herd that these men 

 had been after, and we tried to stalk him, the ground be 

 ing unfavourable for running, but in vain. Having con 

 tinued our search more to the westward, we then came to 

 a portion of the desert that was in profound peace, and 

 we could see herds of bisons in different directions, but 

 none of them available to us in position or in regard to 

 the wind. There was a small herd of bull bisons, how 

 ever, that appeared to be feeding in a place up to which 

 a dry water-course with long grass in it seemed to lead. 

 Though that was not quite as we could wish in the then 

 state of the air, still it was the best chance that offered ; 

 so, giving our horses to George, we began a cautious ap 

 proach to the water-course over some space of the plain 

 commanded, as we feared, by two of the bulls, if by 

 chance they ceased from grazing and happened to look in 

 our direction. We succeeded in crawling over this open 

 space, lying flat on the earth and quite still when a head 

 of the game seemed likely to be lifted up, and when once 

 in the high grass of the ravine we felt in comparative ease. 



