Pg 
150 AN ADVENTURE 
the incentive of these brutal excesses, I will 
not pretend to decide ; but one thing is very 
certain, that the buffalo killed yearly on these 
prairies far exceeds the wants of the travel- 
ler, or what might be looked upon as the 
exigencies of rational sport. * 
But in making these observations, I regret 
that I cannot give to my precepts the force of 
my own example: I have not always been 
able wholly to withstand the cruel temptation. 
Not long after the incident above alluded to, 
as I was pioneering alone, according to my 
usual practice, at a distance of a mile or two 
ahead of the wagons, in search of the best 
route, 1 perceived in a glade, a few rods in 
front of me, several protuberances, which at 
first occasioned me no little fright, for I took 
them, as they loomed dimly through the tall 
grass, for the tops of Indian lodges. But I 
soon discovered they were the huge humps 
of a herd of buffalo, which were quietly 
zing. . 
I immediately alighted, and approached un- 
observed to within forty or fifty yards of the 
unsuspecting animals. Being armed with one 
of Cochran’s nine-chambered rifles, I took 
aim at one that stood broad-side, and ‘ blazed 
away.’ The buffalo threw up their heads and 
looked about, but seeing nothing (for I re- 
mained concealed in the grass), they again 
horses. Most persons appear anton in 
clination to take life, | ithin rifle-sh 
Many stately seed thus falls vckor'o the oaelty of ek 
sity is observable in regard to wild 
unable to restrain this wanton In- 
