90 ON THE FRONTIER, 



without the occurrence of any incident worthy of record, 

 arrived at home. Our trip had been a complete success. 

 It is rarely that a prolonged pleasure excursion does not 

 either break down totally, or terminate with a feeling of 

 disappointment and regret ; that some unlooked-for mis- 

 fortune does not occur, or that an anticipated pleasure does 

 not prove, on experience, a hardship, a worry, or a delusion. 

 Our first buffalo hunt had been a bright exception to the 

 usual course of human events. We had made for our- 

 selves a rash and hazardous programme ; one beset with 

 innumerable contingencies, with a certainty of danger, open 

 to grave doubts as to the possibility of its achievement, and 

 its successful fulfilment to the very letter had become an 

 accomplished fact a thing of the past. It had not only 

 been fulfilled in outline and detail, but such fulfilment had 

 been accompanied with, to us, many unlooked-for surprises, 

 startling effects, and unrivalled scenery ; and had, moreover, 

 been performed with great (self) applause. Taken in its 

 entirety as a pleasure trip, of the kind it was unparalleled, 

 and we were fully satisfied. 



