I5 o HUNTING TRIPS 



up along the valley. Before I had gone a 

 hundred yards, I noticed in the soft soil at 

 the bottom the round prints of a bison's 

 hoofs; and immediately afterwards got a 

 glimpse of the animal himself, as he fed 

 slowly up the course of the ravine, some 

 distance ahead of me. The wind was just 

 right, and no ground could have been better 

 for stalking. Hardly needing to bend down, 

 I walked up behind a small sharp-crested 

 hillock, and peeping over, there below me, 

 not fifty yards off, was a great bison bull. 

 He was walking along, grazing as he 

 walked. His glossy fall coat was in fine 

 trim, and shone in the rays of the sun; 

 while his pride of bearing showed him to 

 be in the lusty vigor of his prime. As I 

 rose above the crest of the hill, he held up 

 his head and cocked his tail in the air. 

 Before he could go off, I put the bullet in 

 behind his shoulder. The wound was an 

 almost immediately fatal one, yet with sur- 

 prising agility for so large and heavy an 

 animal, he bounded up the opposite side of 



