448 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



tho baited grimalkin turns to the worrying cur, so did tl e 'aull tum 

 exactly with my movements, ever presenting his head, and nothing 

 but his head. This proving exceedingly wearisome, and quickly ex- 

 hausted the slender stock of patience with which nature supplied me 

 at my birth, I resolved to try what a shot would do in the centre of 

 his forehead, and steadying my horse for a moment, snapped ray left 

 barrel at him, when with the crack he dropped down, and spurring 

 forward with the belief that I had given him his coup de grace, 1 

 was not a little surprised to see him again stagger to his feet, ready 

 to receive me on his two short black horns, curved in the best 

 possible shape for the ripping business. 



Perceiving, however, that notwithstanding the last bullet had only 

 flattened on his face, he was fast sinking from the internal hemor- 

 rhage caused by the two first, which brought him to a check, I 

 determined, therefore, to expend no more valuable ammunition upon 

 him, but inflict a final thrust or two of cold steel. Re-slinging my 

 rifle across my shoulders, I for the first time couched a lance foi a 

 deadly object, and rode at the bull's flank ; but he was too quick 

 for me, and turned, as if upon a pivot. Round and round we went 

 Nigger, with pricked ears and nimble limbs, keeping a steady loo) 

 upon the buffalo's movements, and far from liking the loud snorts 

 of mingled rage and pain which he momentarily sent forth as we 

 whirled about him. But the attempts of the enemy to foil our pur- 

 pose grew gradually weaker, and at length failing to twist witli hig 

 former adroitness, I plunged the head of the lance to the shaft in liis 

 body, and as I plucked it out, the crimson current of his life poured 

 forth, and falling upon his knees, he rolled over dead without a 

 Struggle. 



Dismounting from Nigger, who steamed and reeked, probably from 

 the combined effects of fear and exertion, I commenced a close in- 

 spection of my victim, and found that an arrow had passed into the 

 3t-shy part of the near thigh, not far from the hock, and, breaking 

 within a few inches of the barbed point, left it buried there. The 

 beast was certainly a fine specimen of the wild bull of the prairie, 

 and might, from his huge size, patriarchial beard, and luxuriant mane 

 which almost imbedded Inn head, ears, and horns, have roved maut 



