234 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



The prairies are in some places whitened with 

 the skulls of the buffalo, dried and bleached by 

 the summer's sun and the frosts and snows of 

 those severe latitudes in winter. Thousands are 

 killed merely for their tongues, and their large 

 carcasses remain, to feed the wolves and other 

 rapacious prowlers on the grassy wastes. 



When these animals are shot at a distance of 

 fifty or sixty yards, they rarely, if ever, charge 

 on the hunters. Mr. Culbertson told us he 

 had killed as many as nine bulls frgm the same 

 spot, unseen by these terrible animals. There 

 are times, however, when they have been known 

 to gore both horse and rider, after being severely 

 wounded, and have dropped down dead but a 

 few minutes afterwards. There are indeed in- 

 stances of bulls receiving many balls without 

 being immediately killed, and we saw one which 

 during one of our hunts was shot no less than 

 twenty -four times before it dropped. 



A bull tbat our party had wounded in the 

 shoulder, and which was thought too badly hurt 

 to do much harm to any one, was found rather 

 dangerous when we approached him, as he 

 would dart forward at the nearest of his foes, and 

 but that his wound prevented him from wheel- 

 ing and turning rapidly, he would certainly have 

 done some mischief We fired at him from our 

 six-barrelled revolving pistol, which, however, 



