416 HUNIING ADVENTURES. 



at The pori} however, with his ears thrown back like a race-horse, 

 at his final effort, and we were within a few score yards at the mo 

 ment of Blackwolf 's bearing close to the right side of the nearest 

 buffalo, and drawing his bow at the moment of passing, buried the 

 arrow to the feather. In an instant the hor^e wheeled to avoid the 

 thrust which the wounded buffalo often makes; but Bluckwolf's victim 

 was stricken in a vital part, and he rolled over struggling and bleed- 

 ing in the throes of deadly agony. Right and left the Indians scoured 

 the plain in hot pursuit of the doomed and frightened animals, and 

 never halting in the chase, but rushing from one to another as the 

 huge beasts shouldered along in their ungainly gallop down the val- 

 lies and over the bluffs, and across huge gaping rents in the prairie, 

 aused by the winter torrents, brought them to the ground like skittles 

 trom well-directed hands. 



There appeared to be no chance for me to flesh my maiden lance, 

 and I began to despair of adding a single head to the number slain, 

 when I caught sight of a solitary fugitive stealing away through t. 

 stony ravine much to the left of the line which the rest had taken, 

 and from his action I concluded that he had met with a wound whicL 

 materially interfered with his speed. With an unequivocal disposi- 

 tion to refuse taking any other cours\ than the one he was pursu- 

 ing, Nigger began to wrestle for the mastership, and being encum- 

 bered with my lance, I hal-some difficulty in pricking him toward 

 the point where the buffalo, alone in his flight, was using his best 

 energies to escape. The pointed iron, however, prevailed, and the 

 plucky little horse, seeing the animal scramble over a conical shaped 

 hillock in the distance, settling himself again in his best pace, and 

 carried me forward in winning style. 



The buffalo in his stride is a most singular looking animal, pitch- 

 ing to and fro in heavy lumbering fashion, and yet gets over the 

 ground much faster than he appears. From the thickness of bis foic- 

 hand he is any thing but speedy on rising ground ; but on a level, 

 or descent, he can play a merry Dat. He is, however, no math foi 

 a horse under any circumstances, and under-sized as Niggtr was, 

 and notwithstanding the distance lost at the start, J have no d jubt, 



