44 LYING GUARD. 



^ Hallo, Jim. What's that you've kHled ?" 



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



" When'l] you go hunting again ? — 'case I want to go too !'* 



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

 ioes 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 bufialo bulls having made their appearaiice, 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, indilferent as it was 

 I imagined it the best I had ever tasted. So keen w?a my relish, it 

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

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

 during the night to renew the feast,-~aa though they had been actually 

 starving for a month. 



The greediness of the " greenhorns,'* was the prohfic 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 aSections 

 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 hver brought in 

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

 and, sopping it mouthful by raouSiful in gallj swallowed it with surprising 

 gusto. 



This strange proceedmg 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 buflTalo at tliis season of the year, is poorer than 

 at any other. From April till the first of June, it attams 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 flesh enough 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 

 fwr, 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 hia 

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



Here, ^/eariness and the somnific efl^cts of a generous heat, speedilj 

 found him stretched at full length towards tha fir«,inorii:if away at a sauna 

 '»t*, the subject of thtir corabmed infiuene» 



