238 The Wilderness Hunter. 



wrapped in robes and blankets, they would get up before 

 daybreak, snatch a hurried breakfast, and start off in 

 couples through the chilly dawn. The great beasts were 

 very plentiful ; in the first day's hunt twenty were slain ; 

 but the herds were restless and ever on the move. Some- 

 times they would be seen right by the camp, and again it 

 would need an all-day's tramp to find them. There was no 

 difficulty in spying them the chief trouble with forest 

 game ; for on the prairie a buffalo makes no effort to hide 

 and its black, shaggy bulk looms up as far as the eye can 

 see. Sometimes they were found in small parties of three 

 or four individuals, sometimes in bands of about two hun- 

 dred, and again in great herds of many thousands ; and 

 solitary old bulls, expelled from the herds, were common. 

 If on broken land, among hills and ravines, there was not 

 much difficulty in approaching from the leeward ; for, 

 though the sense of smell in the buffalo is very acute, they 

 do not see well at a distance through their overhanging 

 frontlets of coarse and matted hair. If, as was generally 

 the case, they were out on the open, rolling prairie, the 

 stalking was far more difficult. Every hollow, every earth 

 hummock and sagebush had to be used as cover. The 

 hunter wriggled through the grass flat on his face, push- 

 ing himself along for perhaps a quarter of a mile by his 

 toes and fingers, heedless of the spiny cactus. When near 

 enough to the huge, unconscious quarry the hunter began 

 firing, still keeping himself carefully concealed. If the 

 smoke was blown away by the wind, and if the buffaloes 

 caught no glimpse of the assailant, they would often stand 

 motionless and stupid until many of their number had been 



