108 THRILLING ADVENTURES. 



high, ignorant that the only certain spot to strike a buffalo is 

 but a few inches above the brisket, and that a higher shot is 

 rarely fatal. When he rose from the ground, he saw all the 

 party halting in full view of his discomfiture; and when he 

 joined them, loud were the laughs, and deep the regrets of 

 the hungry at his first attempt. 



However, they knew that they were in the country of 

 meat ; and a few miles farther, another band of stragglers 

 presenting themselves, three of the hunters went in pursuit, 

 La Bonte taking a mule to pack in the meat. He soon saw 

 them crawling toward the band, and shortly two puffs of smoke, 

 and the sharp cracks of their rifles, showed that they had got 

 within shot ; and when he rode up, two fine buffaloes were 

 stretched upon the ground. Now, for the first time, he was 

 initiated in the mysteries of " butchering." He watched the 

 hunters as they turned the carcass on the belly, stretching 

 out the legs to support it on each side. A transverse cut was 

 then made at the nape of the neck, and, gathering the long 

 hair of the -boss in one hand, the skin was separated from the 

 shoulder. It was then laid open from this point to the tail, 

 along the spine, and then, freed from the sides and down to 

 the brisket, but still attached to it, was stretched upon the 

 ground to receive the dissected portions. Then the shoulder 

 was severed, the fleece removed from along the back-bone, and 

 the hump-ribs cut off with a tomahawk. All this was placed 

 upon the skin ; aud after the "boudins" had been withdrawn 

 from the stomach, and the tongue a great dainty taken 

 from the head, the meat was packed upon the mule, and the 

 whole party hurried to camp rejoicing. 



There was rejoicing in the camp that night, and the way 

 they indulged their appetites or, in their own language, 

 "throw'd the meat "cold" would have made the heart of 

 a dispeptic leap for joy or burst with envy. Far into the 

 " still watches of the tranquil night" the fatal clad " depouile" 

 saw its fleshy mass grow small by degrees and beautifully 



