ATTEMPT TO PACIFY HIM. 287 



neath me, and not much more than seven yards below ! 

 Sideling Taymouth to the edge of the bank, I raised my 

 carbine for a shot, but the instant that was done a slight 

 swerve from my horse shut the bison from my view, and, 

 fabled fiends of the Hartz mountains ! Taymouth would 

 not let me fire ! It made me desperately angry this, but 

 rage availed not, so, after trying to induce my horse to 

 permit me to fire, but all in vain, I dismounted, under 

 the idea that if my friend below charged up again from 

 his sort of saw-pit for the duel, I could mount in time to 

 prevent collision, though in the fidgetty state of Taymouth 

 it might have been a very near thing. Patting my 

 horse's neck, and trying to quiet him, with the rein over 

 my elbow I then again stepped to the brink of the ravine ; 

 but the instant the carbine was raised my horse shied 

 and pulled me back ; and again and again I was baulked. 

 It was a sad dilemma to be in, but there was no help for 

 it, save by pacifying my steed, and this I attempted still 

 to do by caresses, and at last I induced him to stand 

 directly over the buffalo, on whom he kept his eye, pro 

 vided I did not attempt to fire ; however, hoping that by 

 degrees I should succeed, for a minute or two I continued 

 to do no more than pat and kiss him, my eyes looking 

 down on the foe below, who lay quite still, all but his 

 ears. 



The first symptom of greater quietude was in my 

 horse rubbing his head against me; the next was, he 

 heaved a deep-drawn sigh, as strong-lunged horses will 

 do on regaining their wind after a ^evere gallop ; but, 

 alas ! his returning self-possession and recovery of his 

 wind did not end there, for having caught his breath, 

 he blew his nostrils with such a healthful and emphatic 

 snort that he might have been heard half a mile off; and 



