top next night. The noise we could still hear
next morning, by applying our ears to the ground; and it seemed about as
far distant, and in the same direction, as before. We started early, and
rode some hours before we could begin to see them; and when we first
discovered the margin of the herd, it must have been at least ten miles
distant. It was like a black line drawn along the edge of the sky, or a
low shore seen across a lake. The distance of the herd from the place
where we first heard them could not have been less than twenty miles.
But it was now the rutting season, and various parts of the herd were
all the time kept in rapid motion by the severe fights of the bulls. To
the noise produced by the knocking together of the two divisions of the
hoof, when they raised their feet from the ground, and of their
incessant tramping, was added the loud and furious roar of the bulls,
engaged, as they all were, in their terrific and appalling conflicts. We
were conscious that our approach to the herd would not occasion the
alarm now, that it would at any other time, and we rode directly towards
them. As we came near we killed a wounded bull, which scarcely made an
effort to escape from us. He had wounds in his flanks, into which I
could put my whole hand. As we knew that the flesh of the bulls was not
now good to eat, we did not wish to kill them, though we might easily
have shot any number. Dismounting, we put our horses in the care of some
of our number, who were willing to stay back for that purpose, and then
crept into the herd to try to kill some cows. I had separated from the
others, and advancing, got entangled among the bulls. Before I found an
opportunity to shoot a cow, the bulls began to fight very near me. In
their fury they were totally unconscious of my presence, and came
rushing towards me with such violence, that in some alarm for my safety,
I took refuge in one of those holes which are so frequent where those
animals abound, and which they themselves dig to wallow in. Here I found
they were pressing directly upon me, and I was compelled to fire to
disperse them, in which I did not succeed until I had killed four of
them. By this firing the cows were so frightened, that I perceived I
should not be able to kill any in this quarter; so regaining my horse, I
rode to a distant part of the herd, where the Indians had succeeded in
killing a fat cow. But from this cow, as is usual in similar cases, the
herd had all mo