28 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



wagon. How many were killed during the day I don't know ; 

 but far too many, and we at last got disgusted with the miser- 

 able sport and put our rifles away. To be sure, my first ad- 

 venture with them was quite exciting, but now so quiet were 

 they that there was no sport in firing at these harmless brutes. 

 Numbers of them, killed by parties in advance, were scattered 

 over the plain, half devoured by wolves ; and the inroad made 

 upon them by immigrants and hunters, were in thirty years to 

 drive them out of existence, except where protected. I am 

 ashamed to think that we had any part in this slaughter. 



To show how near the outlying members of the large herd 

 of buffaloes which darkened the plain on the east, came to 

 our camp, I will mention that a half-grown specimen jumped 

 over one of our wagon tongues, on its road to water. Its 

 temerity was rewarded with a fatal shot. The bellowing of 

 the main body made the air tremble and frightened our cattle, 

 while a musky odor filled the air. 



The hunting of these animals seemed so much like gunning 

 for cows in a barnyard, that I only mention my experience to 

 show how near I became lost while engaged in that misnamed 

 sport. 



Buffaloes resemble hogs in liking to wallow in mud and 

 water. With the river in sight, when thirsty we had to drink 

 from the little ponds where they had been disporting, though 

 from its musky odor it was almost unbearable. Still it was 

 better than the alkali water we drank further on. 



With the plain full of buffaloes on one side, and the island- 

 filled Platte on the other, we wearily traveled on under an 

 August sun. It was pitiful to see the suffering of the oxen, as 

 with tongues lolling out and eyes turned appealingly to the 

 brutish driver, they slowly moved along. Sometimes they 

 were lashed, beaten and overworked until they fell dead in 

 their tracks. In fifteen miles from our morning's camp we 

 stopped for the night, to the great joy of man and beast. 



