A BUFFALO HUNT. 39 



speed. Just before lie dashed into the creek I came up again 

 and gaye him his thii'd bullet. The crossing he had chosen 

 was yeiy mhjy and too full of timber for our horses, so we 

 entered the stream a little higher up. It "was very deep and 

 rapid, and we had some difficulty in swimming across. 

 When we caught up to our buffalo again he was a good deal 

 { exhausted, and we could plainly see three little streams of 



blood trickling down his sleek hide. As escape was hopeless, 

 he became very sayage. When I hit him again, he turned 

 deliberately round and charged. He did this three times ; but 

 each time his gait was slower, and he threw himself along 

 with greater difficulty. At last he pulled up ; w€ also drew 

 in the reins, but kept close enough to see -eyerything dis- 

 tinctly. He shook his shaggy main two or three times, and 

 lashed his flanks angrily, as he looked around and saw us 

 watching him. He walked a few yards farther, and blood 

 pom^ed from his mouth and nostrils ; then he laid quietly down, 

 and rolled oyer on his back, with his legs thi'own up in the 

 air. We sent a bullet, for precaution, through his heart, and 

 in a few moments our kniyes were out of their sheaths, and 

 our delighted horses were bmying their nostrils in his matted 



mane. 



When a large herd of buffalo is encountered, there is little 

 or no danger risked from the animals thcmselyes by riding 

 straight into their midst, for panic seizes them all, and their 

 only thought is flight. But when one of those little herds 

 of from four to a dozen are attacked, which hayc now in most 

 districts taken the place of the larger herds, these wary old 



found 



Some weeks 



after the hunt just described, I nearly ruined my mai'e for 

 sport by persisting in my efforts to bring down one of tl 

 champion buffalo. 



