278 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



especially if he happen to see the hunter following 

 his track. If, however, the hunter remains quiet, 

 and hides himself, the quarry will stop short, and 

 soon sink upon the ground, to rise no more. It is 

 horrible to see the last moments of a dying buffalo. 

 The noble brute seems to understand that as soon 

 as it falls to the ground it is all over with it, and 

 consequently it makes the greatest efforts to avoid 

 this catastrophe. I have seen a bull, shot through 

 both the lungs and the heart, spouting blood from 

 the mouth and nostrils, its eyes already glazing over 

 with the shades of death, but straddling its legs so 

 as to keep on its feet, and resisting to its last breath 

 that inevitable death which it seemed to defy by 

 filling the air with its terrible bellowings. At last 

 the poor brute makes a last effort to keep on its 

 legs, and then its body rolls over like a foundering 

 ship, its head turning from side to side, and its eyes 

 searching around for the enemy who has reduced its 

 mighty strength to nothing. The more the crea- 

 ture totters, the nearer it is to death. Large 

 drops of blood issue from its nostrils ; it stiffens 

 on its four feet ; a convulsive trembling agitates 

 the enormous mass, and then, collecting all its 

 strength for a mighty bellow, the buffalo falls upon 

 its side as stiff as a corpse that has been dead for 

 hours. 



The first time that a novice attempts to kill a 

 bison (however skilful he may be with a deer), he 



