BULLET AND SHOT 



within about a mile came upon quite fresh tracks. 

 After following these for some time, we came up 

 with the bison, which were lying down in long 

 grass, and disturbed them without getting a shot. 

 I followed up this herd for the best part of the day 

 (which was cold and dark, but without much rain) 

 without getting a chance at the bull, and then gave 

 up the pursuit and started back to camp. On the 

 way, when at no great distance from the lodge, we 

 came upon tracks which the men considered so 

 very fresh that, late as it was, we followed them, 

 thinking that we had found the tracks of another 

 herd which had passed only just before we had 

 come across their footprints. The tracks led to a 

 salt-lick, and thence on through the forest, till we 

 arrived at last at the spot at which we had found 

 them in the early morning ! We had, in the evening, 

 been following tracks of the same herd made before 

 the tracks which we had found in the early morning! 

 So cool and damp was it, that blades of grass, cut 

 by the hoofs of the bison, remained perfectly fresh 

 and un withered during the whole day ! If there be 

 any sun, the blades of grass so cut wither very 

 quickly, and the tracks made by the same animal 

 vary in appearance very greatly according to whether 

 they are exposed to the sun or are in the shade. 



Spiders often spin their webs in the deep tracks 

 made by bison in soft ground ; and in my experience 

 an otherwise fresh-looking track, in which a spider's 

 web is found, had better be abandoned rather than 

 followed. 



The worst feature of tracking is that the sports- 



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