288 A FRESH DIFFICULTY. 



the noise being new to the buffalo, the bull shot up and 

 out of the reeds in which he had been lying, like a bolt 

 from a bow, and sped away from me across the ravine as 

 fast as his great strong gallop could carry him. As 

 the bull jumped so suddenly up, making such suction 

 noises with his immense hind legs in the bog, Tay- 

 mouth flew back and twisted round to such an ex 

 tent, that he nearly tied me up in a knot. However, I 

 disentangled the reins, and jumped on him in time to 

 take a random and much-interrupted, and therefore in 

 effective, shot at the bison as he climbed the opposite 

 bank, when, not wishing to lose sight of him, I put Tay- 

 mouth at the ravine, into which, now that his enemy was 

 gone, he was but too happy to descend ; and, as we came 

 to the couch of my retreating friend, we were consider 

 ably bogged, but not so much but what my horse beauti 

 fully and safely plunged through. Having also attained 

 the opposite bank, and caught a view of the bison going 

 over the plain, I slackened speed, reloaded, and again 

 took up the running, letting my horse feel the spur and go 

 at full speed, by way of quieting him against the next event. 

 No sooner did I begin to come up to close quarters than the 

 buffalo as usual slackened speed, and with a sulky leer 

 at me from beneath his horns collected himself, and, 

 turning from the open plains again short to his right, he 

 ran straight for the great main creek, into which the 

 smaller ravines which we had crossed ran. I pressed 

 him closely, and when he went as usual slap over the 

 bank into the large creek, I might have been about thirty 

 yards behind him ; and by the water which flew up as 

 he so suddenly went down, I knew that we were close to, 

 or in, the water dammed up in places by the beavers, 

 which I had previously seen, 



