40 NEW TEAOKS IN NOETH AMEEICA. 



Ilaviiig succeeded in separating her (for she was a cow) from 

 her half-dozen companions, she sternly refused to make any 



further attempts to escape, and bravely challenged me, 



I 



although unwounded, to single combat on the open plain, j 

 Thrice, when I approached her, she charged down upon mc 

 in splendid style ; and as I had nothing to aim at but her 

 head, I fired each time straight in her face, which, as might 

 have been expected, prored quite useless. My mare at last 

 was so terrified at such unusual pluck on the part of her 

 opponent, that she became unmanageable, so I confessed 

 myself beaten. The cow was killed a few hoiu-s later by 

 some of our party on foot, and they found that one of my 

 bullets had passed through the muscles of the back, parallel 

 with the spine, from the front of the neck almost to the tail. 

 It is well to be cautious in attacldng a small herd, for if the 

 .horse trips up in a praiiie-dog's hole, or the rider is thrown 

 from any other cause during the chase, the buffalo is not 

 unlikely to trample him to death. 



