RESULT OF OUR FIRST STALK. 287 



caught a glimpse of the Professor's hat. Forthwith 

 the tail was straightened and raised stiffly into the 

 air, the head was lowered, and down he came upon 

 us at full charge. Such a j;>roceeding, a few days 

 before, would simply have resolved itself into a 

 question whether he could catch us or not. Now, 

 however, we stood our ground, or rather we lay 

 upon it very firmly, while enough of us took careful 

 aim to batter his bones fast and sorelv. Before 

 taking twenty steps, he was limping from a shat- 

 tered foreleg, and in a moment more came to a 

 sullen halt, and shook his old head in im potent 

 rage. His eyes were fixed fiercely upon ours ; he 

 evidently desired nothing in the world so much as 

 to get forward for a closer acquaintance, but his 

 broken bones forbade. We fired rapidly, and fairly 

 loaded his body with lead before he allowed death to 

 trip him from his feet. He never took his eyes 

 from off us, until the body rolled over, and I 

 thanked our breech-loaders which had prevented the 

 poor beast from having a fair chance. 



Three buffalo were down, as the result of our first 

 "stalk." The herd had fled, but the calf we had 

 first seen remained standing stupidly by his dead 

 mother. " Let 's ketch the critter," said our guide, 

 and to catch him we accordingly prepared. The 

 first movement was to surround him, which done, we 

 began closing in upon him. He was hardly larger 

 than a good-sized goat, and we feared might succeed 

 in dodging us, but as the circle narrowed, our hopes 

 of securing a live specimen increased. Suddenly, the 

 little fellow seemed aware of his danger, and, whirl- 



