40 LYING GUARD. 



'• Hallo, Jim. What's that you've killed ?" 



" Gun broke. Why, you must have overloaded it !" 



" When'll you go hunting again ? — 'case I want to go too !" 



" Poor Jim ! Shoot grass, kill horse, break gun ! Wat in de worl 

 does him mean !" 



" Never mind, Jim. Don't be skeered at these fellows. It takes you 

 to play the devil and break things !" 



Towards night, several buifalo bulls having made their appearance^ our 

 hunter, mounting a horse, started for the chase, and in a brief interval, re- 

 turned laden with a supply of meat. Camp had already been struck, and 

 preparations for the new item of fare were under speedy headway. 



The beef proved miserably poor ; but when cooked, indifferent as it was, 

 I imagined it the best I had ever tasted. So keen was my relish, it 

 seemed impossible to get enough. Each of us devoured an enormous 

 quantity for supper, — and not content with that, several forsook their beds 

 during the night to renew the feast, — as though they had been actually 

 starving for a month. 



The greediness of the '' greenhorns," was the prolific source of amuse- 

 ment to our voyageurs, who made the night-air resound with laughter at 

 the avidity with which the unsophisticated ones " walked into the attections 

 of the old bull," as they expressed it. " Keep on your belts till we get 

 among cows," said they, " then let out a notch or two, and take a full 

 meal." 



It was equally amusing to me, and rather disgusting withal, to see the 

 " old birds," as they called themselves, dispose of the only liver brought in 

 camp. Instead of boiling, frying, or roasting it, they laid hold of it raw, 

 and, sopping it mouthful by mouthful in gall, swallowed it with surprising 

 gusto. 



This strange proceeding was at first altogether incomprehensible, but, 

 ere the reader shall have followed me through all my adventures in the 

 wilds of the great West, he will find me to have obtained a full knowledge 

 of its several merits. 



The beef of the male bufllilo at this season of the year, is poorer than 

 at any other. From April till the first of June, it attains its prime, in 

 point of excellence. In July and August, these animals prosecute their 

 knight-errantic campaign, and, between running, fighting and gallantry, 

 find little time to graze, finally emerging from the contested field, with 

 hides well gored, and scarcely fiesh enougli upon their bones to make a 

 decent shadow. 



It is nowise marvellous, then, that our lavish appropriation of bull- 

 meat at this time, when it is unprecedentedly tough, strong-tasted, and 

 poor, should excite the mirth of our better-informed beholders. 



The night was a cold one, and claimed for it Big Jim as second guard. 

 When called for " relieve," with a borrowed gun, he commenced his 

 rounds, — but the cold soon drove him to the camp-fire. 



Here, weariness and the somnific effects of a generous heat, speedily 

 found him stretched at full length towards the fire, snoring away at a sound 

 rate, the subject of their combined influence. 



