134 In the United States v 



called " still hunting " — the style of hunting pursued 

 by Robin Hood, Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, 

 and William of Cloudeslee — which is, in its way, to 

 a man who loves studying Nature, the most perfect 

 of all sports. No, our man is a different being 

 altogether, a man of the mustang and the high- 

 peaked Mexican saddle, of the lassoo and the spurs, 

 a man whose whole soul is so full of energy and 

 excitement that it bursts forth, ever and anon, into 

 wild singing, and yellings, and gallopings, and firings 

 of rifles, from mere speed of circulation in the dry- 

 champagne-like air of the prairies. His work is 

 done with a rush and a dash, to the poundings of 

 hard horse hoofs, and the thunderings of hundreds 

 of wapiti and bison. His sport is on a gigantic 

 scale, and his returns often enormous, but they soon 

 go ; everything on the plains is frightfully dear, and 

 his very clothing — and he is sure to be a dandy if he 

 is worth anything — cuts a most monstrous cantle 

 out of the greenbacks which he receives from the 

 States — western men always talk of " the States " as 

 a far distant and foreign country — for elk and 

 buffalo, black-tail and white-tail, and, best of all, 

 venison, prong-horn. 



' Buffalo Bill, as to face and feature, is a noble 

 Vandyke stepped from its frame. Oh ! that I had 

 the pen of a lady-novelist to describe his manly 

 charms ! Half hidden by their long black fringes, 

 his large, lustrous eyes so full of slumbering fire, 

 which flashes into flame in moments of excitement — 



