128 GAME. 



for this especial sport while new to it, two or three seasons 

 will dull the edge of the keenest appetite. 



The running is very different under different circum- 

 stances. A single buffalo offers very little sport even to 

 an enthusiastic novice. He is generally an old fellow 

 whom solitary life has rendered self-reliant. He has little 

 disposition to run from any enemy ; and, when he does 

 start, he runs so slowly and wastes so much time in 

 ' gibing and filling ' to watch his pursuer, that he is 

 generally a prey so easy that, after the killing, the mur- 

 derer's conscience smites him, and his self-respect is gone. 



' I'd as lief shoot an ox,' has often been the report, in 

 a lachrymose, self-abashed tone, of a beginner whom I 

 had sent off in a fury of excitement after a solitary old 

 bull. 



The pursuit of a small herd of bulls is equally unsatis- 

 factory. A race after a small herd of twenty or thirty 

 cows and six months' calves gives to the hunter a much 

 more ample compensation for his time and trouble. When 

 from three to six months old, the calves run like the wind ; 

 and to dash into such a herd, single out a calf, pursue 

 and bring it to bay, is a feat worthy of record for the 

 novice. This selection of the animal is the beauty and 

 perfection of buffalo hunting. On account of the con- 

 fusion of numbers and the dust, it can scarcely be done 

 in a large herd, except by first splitting it up into small 

 herds. 



This is much more easy than would appear. When 

 a hunter rushes into a large herd, the buffalo on each 

 side of his horse push from him laterally. As he gets 

 farther into it the buffalo passed do not close in his 

 rear, but being now able to see him more clearly, press 

 farther and farther away. The consequence is that the 

 hunter finds himself riding in a V, the point of which is 

 only a little in advance of his horse's head. By going 

 completely through the herd it is not only split, but the 

 leading buffalo on each side, now clearly seeing the 



