THE BISON OR AMERICAN BUFFALO. 19 



Its edge, in a slight hollow, they saw the four 

 buffaloes just entering a herd of fifty or sixty 

 that were scattered out grazing. The herd 

 paid no attention to the new-comers, and these 

 immediately began to feed greedily. After 

 a whispered consultation, the two hunters crept 

 back, and made a long circle that brought 

 them well to leeward of the herd, in line with 

 a slight rise in the ground. They then crawled 

 up to this rise and, peering through the tufts 

 of tall, rank grass, saw the unconscious beasts 

 a hundred and twenty-five or fifty yards away. 

 They fired together, each mortally wounding 

 his animal, and then, rushing in as the herd 

 halted in confusion, and following them as 

 they ran, impeded by numbers, hurry, and 

 panic, they eventually got three more. 



On another occasion the same two hunters 

 nearly met with a frightful death, being over- 

 taken by a vast herd of stampeded buffaloes. 

 All animals that go in herds are subject to 

 these instanteous attacks of uncontrollable 

 terror, under the influence of which they be- 

 come perfectly mad, and rush headlong in 

 dense masses on any form of death. Horses, 

 and more especially cattle, often suffer from 

 stampedes ; it is a danger against which the 

 cowboys are compelled to be perpetually on 

 guard. A band of stampeded horses, sweep- 

 ing in mad terror up a valley, will dash against 

 a rock or tree with such violence as to leave 

 several dead animals at its base, while the 

 survivors race on without halting; they will 

 overturn and destroy tents and wagons, and a 



