TAYMOUTH AND BISON QUIETED. 293 



one side, and continued to toss his head. " Well, then ; 

 soho, boy ! " and soothing my horse, I walked him in 

 circles round the bull, who now did not even condescend 

 always to keep his horns to me', perpetually raising my 

 carbine as if to fire, till Taymouth got quite used to it, 

 and shied not at all. " Soho, boy," still nearing the bull, 

 when, gently checking my horse to a standstill so near 

 the foe that he again threatened to charge, and was about 

 to turn on me, I shot him just behind and close above 

 the elbow, my horse standing to perfection. He never 

 moved ; it was the death-blow ; but in an instant again 

 the carbine was reloaded and levelled, and again the 

 conical ball this time gave the coup de grace. The 

 monster swayed for a second to and fro, and as he fell 

 dead on his side upon the plain the English death halloa 

 rang aloft and reached the only ear on the plains that 

 understood it. 



No sooner had he fallen than my sensible steed abso 

 lutely wished to go up to him, when, having permitted 

 him to smell the carcass, I dismounted, and, with the 

 rein across my elbow, and with a steed now thus per 

 fectly made, I sat on the body of the vanquished foe, 

 to pat and make much of my horse, to contemplate the 

 picture, and to scan the scene, in order to ascertain 

 where I was. There was the line of the great creek 

 which in the chase I had crossed, and somewhere on 

 which and up stream I knew my camp to be situated, 

 so my doubt as to being able eventually to reach it was at 

 an end ; then also on a distant hill I thought I saw 

 the track on which the waggons had travelled in 

 reaching the creek on the first evening, and all that 

 remained to be wished for was the men and the wag- 



