ON THE PRAIh 135 



this and turned up a winding coulie that 

 branched out in every direction, his hoofs 

 scarcely made any marks in the hard 

 ground. We rode up the ravine, carefully 

 examining the soil for nearly half an hour, 

 however; finally, as we passed the mouth 

 of a little side coulie, there was a plunge 

 and crackle through the bushes at its head, 

 and a shabby-looking old bull bison gal- 

 loped out of it and, without an instant's 

 hesitation, plunged over a steep bank into 

 a patch of rotten, broken ground which led 

 around the base of a high butte. So quickly 

 did he disappear that we had not time to 

 dismount and fire. Spurring our horses we 

 galloped up to the brink of the cliff down 



h lie had plunged; it was remarkable 

 that he should have gone down it unhurt. 

 From where we stood we could see noth- 

 ing ; so, getting our horses over the broken 

 ground as fast as possible, we ran to the 

 butte and rode round it, only to see the 

 buffalo come out of the broken land and 

 climb up the side of another butte over a 



