A. SOJOURN AMONG- THE HALE-BREEDS. 133 



ment of the hunt. Six hours' hard riding brought us within a quarter 

 of a mile of the nearest of the herd. The main body stretched over 

 the plains far as the eye could reach. Fortunately the wind blew in 

 our faces ; had it blown towards the buffaloes, they would have scented 

 us miles off I wished to have attacked them at once, but my com- 

 panion would not allow me until the rest of the party came up, as it 

 was contrary to the law of the tribe. We therefore sheltered our- 

 selves from the observation of the herd behind a mound, relieving our 

 horses of their saddles to cool them. In about an hour the hunters 

 came up to m, numbering about one hundred and thirty, and im- 

 mediate preparations were made for the chase. Every man loaded 

 his gun, looked to his priming, and examined the efficiency of his 

 saddle-girths. 



The elder men strongly cautioned the less experienced not to shoot 

 each other, a caution by no means unnecessary, as such accidents 

 frequently occur. Each hunter then filled his mouth with balls which 

 he drops into the gun without wadding ; by this means loading much 

 quicker, and being enabled to do so whilst his horse is at full speed. 

 It is true that the gun is more liable to burst, but that they do not 

 seem to mind. Nor does the gun carry so far, or so true, but that 

 is of less consequence as they always fire quite elose to the animal. 

 Every thing being adjusted, we all walked our horses towards the 

 herd. By the time we had gone about two hundred yards, the herd 

 perceived us and started off in the opposite direction at the top of 

 their speed. "We now put our horses to the full gallop, and in twenty 

 minutes were in their midst. There could not have been less than 

 four or five thousand in our immediate vicinity, all bulls, not a single 

 cow amongst them. The scene now became one of intense excite- 

 ments the huge bulls thundering over the plains in headlong con- 

 fusion, whilst the fearless hunters rode recklessly in their midst, 

 keeping up an incessant fire at but a few yards distance from their 

 victims. Upon the fall of eaeh buffalo the successful hunter merely 

 threw some article of his apparel — often carried by him solely for that 

 purpose — to denote his own prey, and then rushed on to another. 

 These marks are seareely ever disputed, but should a doubt arise as to 

 the ownership, the carease is equally divided between the claimants. 



The ehase continued only about one hour, and extended over an 

 area of from five to six square miles, over which might be seen the 

 dead and dying buffaloes, to the number of five hundred. In the 

 mean time my horse, which had started at a good run, was suddenly 

 confronted by a large bull, that made his appearance from behind a 

 knoll within a fev^ yards of him, and, being thus taken by surprise, he 



