606 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



my rifle across his horse's nose, and letting fly sharp right 

 and left at the two buffaloes. A headlong charge, accom- 

 panied by a muffled roar, was the result. In an instant I 

 was round a clump of tangled thorn trees ; but Isaac, by the 

 violence of his efforts to get his horse in motion, lost his 

 balance, and at the same instant, his girths giving way, him- 

 self, his saddle, and big Dutch rifle, all came to the ground 

 together, with a heavy crash, right in the path of the infu- 

 riated buffaloes. Two of the dogs, which had fortunately 

 that moment joined us, met them in their charge, and, by 

 diverting their attention, probably saved Isaac from instant 

 destruction. The buffaloes now took up another position in 

 an adjoining thicket. They were both badly wounded, 

 blotches and pools of blood marking the ground where they 

 had stood. The dogs rendered me assistance by taking up 

 their attention, and in a few minutes these two noble bulls 

 breathed their last beneath the shade of a mimosa grove. 

 Each of them, in dying, repeatedly uttered a very striking, 

 low, deep moan. This I subsequently ascertained the buffalo 

 invariably utters when in the act of expiring. 



On going up to them, I was astonished to behold their size 

 and powerful appearance. Their horns reminded me of the 

 rugged trunk of an oak tree. Each horn was upward of a 

 foot in breadth at the base, and together they effectually 

 protected the skull with a massive and impenetrable shield. 

 The horns, descending, and spreading out horizontally, com- 

 pletely overshadowed the animal's eyes, imparting to him a 

 look the most ferocious and sinister that can be imagined. 



This conveys to us a striking picture of the power and 

 prowess of the individual animal, but ; although these gentle- 

 men are, with perhaps pardonable exaggeration, constantly 

 using the term "vast," in reference to the herds of buffalo 

 encountered by them in these regions, yet I am compelled 

 to classify this use of a word so significant along with that 

 they uniformly make of forest, which after all means in 



