252 The Wilderness Hunter. 



steps. I did not look at the trail at all, but kept watching 

 ahead, hoping at any moment to see the game. 



It was not very long before we struck their day beds, 

 which were made on a knoll, where the forest was open 

 and where there was much down timber. After leaving 

 the day beds the animals had at first fed separately around 

 the grassy base and sides of the knoll, and had then made 

 off in their usual single file, going straight to a small pool 

 in the forest. After drinking they had left this pool, and 

 travelled down towards the gorge at the mouth of the 

 basin, the trail leading along the sides of the steep hill, 

 which were dotted by open glades ; while the roar of the 

 cataracts by which the stream was broken ascended from 

 below. Here we moved with redoubled caution, for the 

 sign had grown very fresh and the animals had once more 

 scattered and begun feeding. When the trail led across 

 the glades we usually skirted them so as to keep in the 

 timber. 



At last, on nearing the edge of one of these glades we 

 saw a movement among the young trees on the other side, 

 not fifty yards away. Peering through the safe shelter 

 yielded by some thick evergreen bushes, we speedily made 

 out three bison, a cow, a calf, and a yearling, grazing 

 greedily on the other side of the glade, under the fringing 

 timber ; all with their heads up hill. Soon another cow 

 and calf stepped out after them. I did not wish to shoot, 

 waiting for the appearance of the big bull which I knew 

 was accompanying them. 



So for several minutes I watched the great, clumsy, 

 shaggy beasts, as all unconscious they grazed in the open 



