all, took to their heels, and scampered off over the ridges.

The dust gradually began to float off, and through the thinner cloud
that remained we now saw what the wolves had been at. Standing in the
centre of a ring, formed by its own turnings and struggles, was the huge
form of a buffalo-bull. Its shape indicated that it was a very old one,
lank, lean, and covered with long hair, raggled and torn into tufts.
Its colour was that of the white dust, but red blood was streaming
freshly down its hind flanks, and from its nose and mouth. The
cartilage of the nose was torn to pieces by the fierce enemies it had so
lately encountered, and on observing it more closely we saw that its
eyes were pulled out of their sockets, exhibiting a fearful spectacle.
The tail was eaten off by repeated wrenches, and the hind-quarters were
sadly mangled. Spite of all this mutilation, the old bull still kept
his feet, and his prowess had been proved, for no less than five wolves
lay around, that he had "rubbed out" previous to our arrival. He was a
terrible and melancholy spectacle--that old bull, and all agreed it
would be better to relieve him by a well-aimed bullet. This was
instantly fired at him; and the animal, after rocking about a while on
his spread legs, fell gently to the earth.

Of course he had proved himself too tough to be eatable by anything but
prairie-wolves, and we were about to leave him as he lay. Ike, however,
had no idea of gratifying these sneaking creatures at so cheap a rate.
He was determined they should not have their dinner so easily, so taking
out his knife he extracted the bladder, and some of the smaller
intestines from the buffalo. These he inflated in a trice, and then
rigging up a sapling over the body, he hung them upon it, so that the
slightest breeze kept them in motion. This, as we had been already
assured, was the best mode of keeping wolves at a distance from any
object, and the hunter, when wolves are near, often avails himself of it
to protect the venison or buffalo-meat which he is obliged to leave
behind him.

The guide having rigged his "scare wolf," mounted his old mare, and
again joined us, muttering his satisfaction as he rode along.

We had not travelled much farther when our attention was attracted by
noises in front, and again from a ridge we beheld a scene still more
interesting than that we had just witnessed. As before, the actors were
buffalo and wolves, but this time there