THE BISON, OR BUFFALO. 279 



is sure to fail. Seeing befoi*e him sucli an enor- 

 mous mass, he imagines that he has only to 

 plant a bullet in the body of the giant to reach 

 the vital parts of the animal. There could be no 

 greater mistake : to kill a buffalo on the spot you 

 must hit him between the shoulder-blades, near 

 the dorsal spine, and the stroke will certainly be 

 fatal. 



During the two months which I spent among the 

 Sioux, I only killed two bisons to my own gun. 

 The first had received a shot in the chest, which 

 had penetrated the heart, and the hole was suffi- 

 ciently wide to allow the finger to pass in. Yet the 

 creature had "been able to run two miles from the 

 place where I had shot him. The second sustained 

 two shots ; the former of which broke its fore-leg, 

 and the other pierced its lungs ; and yet in spite 

 of this double wound it was able to rush on wildly 

 for nearly a quarter of an hour. I have seen 

 an old bull bison receive eighteen bullets at ten 

 paces distance, and although his body was riddled 

 like a sieve, he has run more than a mile from 

 the place where he received the broadside, suc- 

 cumbing only at last to a bullet which broke the 

 frontal bone. 



It should be observed that the head of the buffalo 

 is covered with a fur so thick and matted, that a 

 bullet finds its way to the brain with difficulty, un- 

 less the rifle be discharged at a short distance from 



