ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS^ ETC. 45 



The day following, we saw several small herds of buffalo, 

 on our side of the river. Two of our hunters started out after a 

 huge bull that had separated himself from his companions, and 

 gave him chase on t?eet horses. 



Away went the buffalo, and away went the men, hard as they 

 could dash ; now the hunters gained upon him, and pressed him 

 hard ; again the enormous creature had the advantage, plunging 

 with all his might, his terrific horns oflen ploughing up the 

 earth as he spurned it under him. Sometimes he would double, 

 and rush so near the horses as almost to gore them with his 

 horns, and in an instant would be off in a tangent, and throw 

 his pursuers from the track. At length the poor animal came to 

 bay, and made some unequivocal demonstrations of combat ; 

 raising and tossing his head furiously, and tearing up the ground 

 with his feet. At this moment a shot was fired. The victim 

 trembled like an aspen, and fell to his knees, but recovering 

 himself in an instant, started again as fast as before. Again the 

 determined hunters dashed after him, but the poor bull was 

 nearly exhausted, he proceeded but a short distance and stopped 

 again. The hunters approached, rode slowly by him, and shot 

 two balls through his body with the most perfect coolness and 

 precision. During the race, — the whole of which occurred in 

 full view of the party, — the men seemed wild with the excite- 

 ment which it occasioned ; and when the animal fell, a shout 

 rent the air, which startled the antelopes by dozens from the 

 bluffs, and sent the wolves howling like demons from their 

 lairs. 



This is the most common mode of killing the buffalo, and is 

 practised very generally by the travelling hunters ; many are 

 also destroyed by approaching them on foot, when, if the bushes 

 are sufficiently dense, or the grass high enough to afford con- 

 cealment, the hunter, — by keeping carefully to leeward of his 

 game, — may sometimes approach so near as almost to touch 



