298 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



gun elevated and fired at the herd, now huddled together 

 in one solid mass. A fine young bull was seen to stagger 

 a few steps and fail, shot through the heart. 



On rushed the herd, now worse frightened than ever; 

 and as we hurried on after them, we fairly shouted in tri- 

 umph, for we saw that right in front of them ran a ravine 

 which, we could.see at a point beyond, was at least forty 

 feet deep. 



The ravines in this light subsoil, torn out by the deluging 

 rains which occasionally fall in this region, were generally 

 broken off at the edges just as steep as soil could hang, and 

 as the Buffaloes were sweeping on like a tornado, with little 

 time to look before they leaped, we felt sure that our hunt 

 was ended, the meat supply assured, and only regretted the 

 unnecessary slaughter sure to follow as the fated herd 

 plunged down the steep. 



Over they went, now some three hundred yards ahead of 

 us, and we slackened our pace to a walk and began plan- 

 ning how to get the meat of the slaughtered herd up the 

 nearly perpendicular walls of the ravine. When within 

 two hundred yards of the brink, to our amazement, a Buf- 

 falo appeared, clambering up the face of the other wall of 

 the ravine, at a point that we afterward found taxed the 

 climbing powers of a footman. Another and another came 

 bobbing up, and we drew up the horses, utterly dumb- 

 founded to see that every one, even to the calves, had made 

 the plunge in safety. 



This, to me, was one of the most noteworthy things that 

 ever came under my observation. Many times afterward 

 we saw Buffalo-tracks on the slight projections of the walls 

 of these deep gullies, in places where we could only stop 

 and stare. The shape of their limbs, too, seemed utterly to 

 forbid their climbing such walls. 



As the bulls at this season of the year were fatter than 

 the cows, a i'act which was apparent at a glance, we 

 naturally chose them for beef, and as, like all tenderfeet, 

 we \\viv ambitious to kill the largest specimen to be found, 

 it followed that nearly all we killed were large bulls. Yet, 



