208 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



person did not know this trick he was liable to be thrown, 

 and left to face the fury of a fierce bull, or the hoofs of a 

 maddened throng that a precipice could not swerve from 

 their heedless course. 



This habit of breaking away the moment a shot is fired 

 may have its advantages ; but they are more than counter- 

 balanced by the disadvantages, and not the least of these 

 is that a man does not feel secure of his seat for five min- 

 utes together in a headlong dash. Mustangs trained by In- 

 dians are also accustomed to run on the right of a herd, 

 as that is the most convenient position for the red men in 

 shooting their arrows ; but it is not always so to the pale- 

 face, especially if he uses a revolver. 



One of the surest means of bagging a large number of 

 buffaloes is to remain about twenty or thirty feet behind 

 a herd, so as not to scatter the animals, and rake them for- 

 ward, so as to make a three-quartering shot through the 

 ribs and lungs ; for if a person crowded on them they 

 would push away from him laterally, or break up into 

 groups, and by this means give him as much trouble to 

 tumble over a dozen as it would to kill three times that 

 number. If a person has a fast and trained horse, all he 

 has to do is to throw the reins on his neck and fire away, 

 and he must be a poor shot indeed if he cannot claim sev- 

 eral trophies in a run of twenty minutes. Experienced 

 hunters kill one almost at every shot, or at least cripple 

 them so much that they cannot escape, so are subsequently 

 captured. Dr. Carver, the famous rifleman, and probably 

 the best buffalo-hunter in the world, has killed sixty-three 

 out of a herd in one run, and wounded several more ; and 

 it was no uncommon thing for him to kill thirty or forty 

 in a run, and select his animals. I have hunted with him 

 and other persons in the West, but I never knew one to 

 even approach him in killing buffaloes or any other game 

 when they were running at full speed. 



The two methods of hunting the buffalo employed in 

 the West is to stalk it and run it down on horseback. 

 Which is the most sportsman-like method, sportsmen will 



