238 AUDUBON THE NATUEALIST. 



signal from the top of a high hill, that "buffaloes 

 were in sight; this is done bj walking the 

 hunter's horse backward and forward several 

 times. We hurried on and found our scout 

 lying close to his horse's neck, as if asleep on the 

 back of the animal. He pointed out where he 

 had discovered the game, but they had gone out 

 of sight, and (as he said) were travelling fast, the 

 herd being composed of both bulls and cows. 

 The hunters mounted at once, and galloped on 

 in rapid pursuit, while we followed more leisurely 

 over hills and plains and across ravines and 

 broken ground, at the risk of our necks. Now 

 and then we could see the hunters, and occa- 

 sionally the buffaloes, which had taken a direc- 

 tion toward the fort. At last we reached an 

 eminence from which we saw the hunters ap- 

 proaching the buffaloes in order to begin the 

 chase in earnest. It seems that there is no 

 etiquette among buffalo hunters, and this not 

 being understood beforehand by our friend Har- 

 ris, he was disappointed in his wish to kill a cow. 

 The country was not as favourable to the hunters 

 as it was to the flying herd. The females sep- 

 arated from the males, and the latter turned in 

 our direction and passed within a few hundred 

 yards of us without our being able to fire at 

 them. Indeed we willingly suffered them to 

 pass unmolested, as they are always very danger- 



