158 TEN DAYS IN MONTANA. 



my first buffalo. Moreover I have killed him alone and 

 unaided there is no lead in him but my own. 



Now that the excitement is over I realize the fact that I 

 am over three miles from camp and entirely alone. I remem- 

 ber that we have all along been on the lookout for Indians 

 and have been prepared to meet them. The Sioux, of course, 

 know where these buffaloes are as well as we do, and that 

 bands of them are likely to be out here laying in their win- 

 ter's supply of meat, is the most natural conclusion in the 

 the world. I instinctively feel for the top of my head, but 

 then I reflect that bald-headed men don't make good scalps, 

 and I feel a little safer. However, I felt that I ought to go to 

 camp at once for it was breakfast time, so I went. When I 

 arrived there my friends had finished eating, hitched up the 

 teams, and were waiting for me to join them in another hunt. 



1 ate a very hearty breakfast in a very short space of time, 

 and we were off again, the Judge and Mr. Bellows on one 

 buckboard, the Major and I on the other, and the boys on 

 horseback. We drove southwest about fifteen miles, but did 

 not succeed in finding any game. We returned to camp at 

 three o'clock in the afternoon, when Corporal Brown and I 

 took one of the teams and went out to skin the buffalo I had 

 killed in the morning. We found it a very difficult task. He 

 was an unusually large and very old one, and the skin about 

 the head and neck was from a half to three-quarters of an 

 inch thick. The fur was in fair condition, much better than 

 it usually is at this time of year. 



When we commenced the operation the corporal re- 

 minded me that it would be prudent to load our rifles and 

 lay them close at hand, for said he, " We never know in this 

 country wKen we are going to be jumped by Indians, and we 

 make it a point to always be ready for them." As we pro- 

 ceeded with the work we frequently stopped and looked 



