62 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



fierce-looking bull, over whose head so many years 

 have passed that he no longer has strength to keep 

 pace with the migratory herd, and struggle in its 

 dense phalanx for female favour or choice croppings of 

 pasture, retires to them to spend in abundance the 

 winter of life; while the graceful deer, the timid 

 hare, and the sagacious beaver, here pass their lives in 

 peaceful, happy contentment, except some adventurous 

 white man or snake- visioned redskin should pay it 

 a visit, destroying, as man ever does, the serenity that 

 reigned around previous to his advent. 



But come, the morning has broken clear and in- 

 vigorating, breakfast has already been discussed, and the 

 horses have got a rough rub over. The neighbourhood 

 is well suited for a gallop, for from the slight shower 

 of the previous ev3ning the soil is springy, and fewer 

 of the indefatigable little burro wers the prairie dogs 

 have undermined the vicinity. Meat is wanted, and 

 as we start our minds are made up that, unless success- 

 ful, the sun must dip the western horizon ere we 

 return. Attending our own nags, and giving an extra 

 pull upon the girths ere getting into the saddle, at a 

 sober, steady pace we start. An old practised buffalo 

 runner (for so the Western man terms his favourite 

 and experienced horse) will quietly settle to his 

 master's will, for from experience well he knows that 



