AN EXCITING ENCOUNTER. 247 



at the same time got a glimpse of a huge mass behind her, 

 which made me wait, as I was certain it was an immense bull 

 by the size of the footmarks ; another snort and another 

 rush, and they were off a third time. We found now that 

 there were five of them — with two thundering big tracks 

 of two huge bulls, so I determined to follow them, and after 

 a good long chull again came in sight of them. I saw the 

 body of one of the big ones standing broadside on about 

 sixty paces off, so I let drive, and as it rushed away, knew 

 I had hit from the quantity of blood flowing, and had the 

 satisfaction of seeing, from the footmarks, that it came from 

 one of the big bulls. We had not gone far before we found 

 it lying dead. The other big bull was just behind a bamboo 

 clump ; I moved on one side to get a fairer shot, and just as 

 I pulled the trigger it snorted and bolted, Atley declaring I 

 had made a hit. We went back to the dead one, and to my 

 astonishment found it was a cow ; the largest I had ever 

 seen, and with the largest horns. After taking the tongue, we 

 took up the track of the bull, about which there could be 

 no mistake this time, for there were the footprints, so much 

 larger than the others. There was a great quantity of blood 

 at first but it gradually lessened till there was only a drop or 

 two here and there; we had a long track and at last just as we 

 got into the thick bushy underwood and amongst the young 

 teaky looking stuff we heard the bison rush away close in 

 front, but the bush was too thick to see through ; following as 

 best we could, we heard it breathing heavily a little beyond 

 us. I was in this dense underwood and was in the act of 

 creeping through it to get in front of the animal when I 

 suddenly heard a rush to my right and the bison was upon 

 me with its head down between its forelegs. I attempted to 



