Hunting Scenes 141 



and foliage, in the orange and reds of the 

 flowering trees. The herd of bison was also 

 transformed ; they passed a few yards below 

 the hunters in all their pride of graceful strength. 

 The bulls were of a deep chocolate colour, 

 turning to black in the shadows ; the head was 

 held high, as if the weight of the curved horns, 

 green and polished like clouded jade, was 

 hardly felt ; the light-blue eyes gazed serenely 

 and confidently around, and the golden yellow 

 of the slender lower limbs contributed to the 

 effect of agility in spite of the ponderous bulk of 

 an animal some eighteen hands in height. The 

 herd passed slowly by without suspicion or 

 alarm, imprinting on the minds of the hunters 

 an indelible picture seldom seen save by those 

 who pass their lives in the forest ; and, as they 

 grazed, a slant of the fickle morning breeze 

 brought to the herd the taint of man. They 

 swung round facing the path in which they had 

 come, inhaling the air with suspicion, and then 

 the signal for flight came in a sharp whistle 

 from one of the cows. The herd turned and 

 fled, galloping over the broken ground with the 



