BULLET AND SHOT 



the light-coloured frothy blood on the track bearing 

 indisputable evidence that it had been hit through 

 the lungs. I followed it as long as there was light 

 to do so and yet to reach camp before nightfall, 

 and came up with it several times at long intervals, 

 but did not obtain another shot. Next morning 

 early, I took up the tracks at the spot at which 

 I had left them on the previous evening, quite 

 expecting to find the bull lying dead, but after 

 following them for a long way, I found that he 

 had grazed heavily during the night, or early that 

 morning, and when at last I came up to where 

 he had been reposing, his open hoof-marks, going 

 off with long strides from the form which he had 

 made in lying down, showed that he had got our 

 wind and had gone off quite fresh. All bleeding 

 had stopped, and I hope, and believe, that that bull 

 quite recovered from its wound. 



Bison often take many bullets after having been 

 wounded for the first time. It seems as if, when 

 an animal has received a fairly severe, and yet not 

 rapidly mortal wound, he can, in certain cases, 

 support several other shocks, any one of which 

 would be sufficient to place hors de combat an 

 unwounded beast. I hope, and believe, that the 

 reason for this is that after one very severe 

 nervous shock, sensation is deadened, and so the 

 poor beasts suffer far less pain than they would 

 otherwise experience when subsequent wounds are 

 inflicted upon them. I cannot pathologically 

 explain this fact, but presume that the nervous 

 system is responsible for it. 



38 



