THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



rocky mass of horn above his head: the buffalo 

 was so near at the time of his firing, that the 

 horn struck the gun-barrels at the next instant; 

 but whether the noise and smoke confused the 

 animal, or he was partially stunned by the bullet, 

 he missed my friend, and continued his pursuit of 

 Frolic. 



"The Hottentot dodged the enraged and terrific- 

 looking brute round the bushes, but through these 

 slight obstacles he dashed with ease, and gained 

 ground rapidly. Speechless, we watched the 

 chase, and, in the awful moment, regardless of 

 concealment, stood up, and saw the buffalo over- 

 take his victim and knock him down. At this 

 crisis, my friend fired his second barrel into the 

 beast, which gave Frolic one or two blows with 

 his fore-feet, and pushing his nose under, endeav- 

 oured to toss him; but the Hottentot, aware of 

 this, lay with much presence of mind perfectly still. 



"Moneypenny now shouted to me, 'The buffalo 

 is coming ;' and, in darting round a bush, I stum- 

 bled on my rifle, cutting my knee very badly. 

 This proved a false alarm ; and directly after the 

 buffalo fell dead by Frolic, who then rose and 

 limped towards us. He was much hurt, and a 

 powder-flask which lay in his game-bag was 

 stamped flat. The buflalo was too weak to use 

 his full strength upon him, having probably ex- 

 hausted all his remaining energy in the chase: 

 otherwise the Hottentot would undoubtedly have 

 been killed, since a man is safer under the paws of 

 a wounded lion, than under the head of an in- 

 furiated buflalo. Never did I feel more grateful to 

 a protecting Providence, than when this poor 

 fellow came to us ; for his escape without material 

 injury was little short of miraculous."* 

 * "Life in the Wilderness," p. 173. 

 240 





