148 GAME. 



CHAPTER IX 



WILD CATTLE. 



I SHOULD be doing injustice to a cousin-german of the 

 buffalo, did I fail to mention as game the wild cattle of 

 Texas. It is the domestic animal run wild, changed in 

 some of his habits and characteristics by many generations 

 of freedom and self-care. I have already spoken of the 

 ferocious disposition of some of the so-called tame cattle 

 of Texas. A footman is never safe when a herd is in his 

 vicinity ; and every sportsman who has hunted quail in 

 Texas will have experienced the uneasiness natural to any 

 man around whom a crowd of long-horned beasts are 

 pawing the earth and tossing their heads in anger at his 

 appearance. 



I admit some very decided frights, and on more than 

 one occasion have felt exceedingly relieved when an aggres- 

 sive young bull has gone off bellowing and shaking his 

 head, his face and eyes full of No. 8 shot, and taking the 

 herd with him. I speak, I am sorry to say, of an ex- 

 perience now more than twenty years old. Texas was a 

 new country then, and certainly an aggressive country. 

 Every bush had its thorn ; every animal, reptile, or insect 

 had its horn, tooth, or sting ; every male human his re- 

 volver ; and each was ready to use his weapon of defence 

 on any unfortunate sojourner, on the smallest, or even 

 without the smallest, provocation. 



I doubt if time has ameliorated the qualities of the 

 bush, the reptile, or the insect. 



The cattle which are brought north seem to be some- 



