HUNTING THE DISON. 447 



had he not been crippled, but that we should have come up with the 

 patriarch in a rua of somewhat longer duration. 



As it was, we were, in nautical phraseology, coming up with the 

 chase hand over hand, and after floundering through a spongy bottom, 

 in which were several wallows of some dozen feet in diameter madt 

 by the buffaloes, I found myself near enough to try the effect of 

 lead, and dropping my hnce to trail along the ground by a thong 

 attached to my wrist, for I was not expert enough to handle both it 

 and my rifle, as an Indian would have done without inconvenience, 

 I brought the barrels to bear and gave the contents of both just as 

 Nigger's nose was on a level with the haunch of one of the largest 

 and blackest bulls that ever ranged over a western plain. 



With due regard for the preservation of himself, and possibly hia 

 rider, Nigger made an abrupt curve, and sheering off, almost at a 

 right angle, avoided an ugly vicious thrust, which the bull might 

 have made much more effective than my brace of bullets, had not 

 the sagacity of the pony taught him to avoid it. Upon reining in 

 my gallant and discreet little steed, and turning his head again to- 

 ward the buffalo, I saw that he was standing still, and giving as bold 

 a front as was ever offered to an enemy. Coming to a correspond- 

 ing position, I deliberately re-loaded my rifle, and approached him 

 with the greatest caution ; for whether he intended to wait my se- 

 cond attack, or plunge forward and send me and Nigger skimming 

 to some unknown corner of the earth, appeared a matter of doubt 

 not quite made up. After a few brief moments for reconnoitring, 

 I urged my horse to advance to within less than thirty paces of 

 where the bull stood gazing at us, with his curling mane and beard 

 sweeping below his knees, and his distended jaws droppii g foam, 

 scarlet dyed with blood. Nothing, indeed, can be imagined more 

 ferocious than the wounded animal looked, fixing the peculiar white 

 balls and black iris of his eyes upon us, under his shaggy frontlet, 

 with the expression of the devil in a mood far from funny. Think- 

 ing it expedient to bring the contest to a conclusion without further 

 waste of time, I essayed a manoeuvre 'in order to obtain a sight at a 

 more vulnerable part of my victim's carcass than that which, as I had 

 been given to understand by Hawkeye, his head presented. But, at 



