i84 THE OX FAMILY 



wound — no bones were broken; no artery severed — 

 and at his suggestion we rode slowly away toward the 

 Yellowstone. We did not succeed in ixjoining our 

 command until the next day, and, of course, had a bad 

 night out. The following day we sent the doctor in a 

 boat* to the hospital at Fort Buford, and moved on 

 toward Fort Keogh. 



Before leaving the field where I killed my first buf- 

 falo, I cut off the tails of a number of the animals (in- 

 cluding the two bulls which fell while fighting). The 

 officers and scouts were much amused at my trophies, 

 when I displayed them. The cook was disgusted be- 

 cause I did not know enough to keep my score with 

 tongues. The buffalo-tongue is considered a great 

 delicacy, and it was often cut out and saved when the 

 rest of the animal was left for the wolves. 



While the buffaloes were most abundant upon the 

 gr-eat plains, there were many small herds, containing a 

 few hundred or perhaps a few thousand animals, which 

 ranged up into the little river-valleys in the foot-hills 

 and even into the mountains. One morning when I 

 was riding in the hills just west of the Rosebud River 

 and looking for deer, I heard firing in the valley, and 

 looking down, saw a good herd of buffaloes in full 

 flight headed up the slope and directly toward me. 

 I had dismounted and was drinking from a canteen. 

 Seizing my rifle, I stepped back a few paces behind a 

 small butte or point of the hill on which we were and 

 awaited the oncoming herd. With a great noise of 



* A small steamboat which, fortunately, came down the river, bearing the 

 Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurz, who had been visiting some of the 

 Indian Agencies. The secretary kindly offered to take our wounded to the 

 hospital. 



