ftbe 1bon. (Brantleg Jf. JBcrftele^ 469 



that he has started right ; we predict that he will have 

 one of the most brilliant hunting expeditions ever 

 witnessed in this country." 



I will let Berkeley describe in his own words his first 

 brush with the bison. After telling how he and his 

 friend Lieutenant Bayard of the American Army came 

 up with a herd, he thus proceeds : 



" Bayard and myself (I confess to have been in a 

 charmed delight) then set off towards them gently and 

 without noise, availing ourselves of any inequality in the 

 ground there might be to cover our approach, and in 

 order to give the bisons as little the start of us as 

 possible ; but when we came to within about half a mile 

 of them, off they set in that peculiar up-and-down canter 

 in which they invariably commence their retreat. . . . The 

 instant we set off at a gallop in our run to the game, 

 Taymouth [his horse] was all on fire to keep ahead, and 

 when he saw the retreating mass of beasts flying from 

 him, ignorant of what they were, it increased his anxious 

 desire to overtake them. Having heard that horses 

 were terrified at even the smell as well as the sight of 

 bisons, I drew Taymouth into the wake of the retreating 

 animals, in order to encourage his approach, and to let 

 him know they were in retreat. He soon overtook 

 them ; but when he came up to within about fifty yards 

 of the rearmost bull, while he slackened his pace a little, 

 he pricked his ears and made such a stare that I knew, 

 as well as felt, he was very much scared, and inclined 

 to go to the right-about. A slight touch of the spur, 

 however, and that clasp of the knees which horses so 

 well understand, put all direct refusal out of his head, 



