s and good quality, the
task of killing such as we wanted for use; but against the bulls we
waged an unrelenting war. Thousands of them might be slaughtered without
causing any detriment to the species, for their numbers greatly exceed
those of the cows; it is the hides of the latter alone which are used
for the purpose of commerce and for making the lodges of the Indians;
and the destruction among them is therefore altogether disproportioned.

Our horses were tired, and we now usually hunted on foot. The wide, flat
sand-beds of the Arkansas, as the reader will remember, lay close by the
side of our camp. While we were lying on the grass after dinner,
smoking, conversing, or laughing at Tete Rouge, one of us would look up
and observe, far out on the plains beyond the river, certain black
objects slowly approaching. He would inhale a parting whiff from the
pipe, then rising lazily, take his rifle, which leaned against the cart,
throw over his shoulder the strap of his pouch and powder-horn, and with
his moccasins in his hand walk quietly across the sand toward the
opposite side of the river.

This was very easy; for though the sands were about a quarter of a mile
wide, the water was nowhere more than two feet deep. The farther bank
was about four or five feet high, and quite perpendicular, being cut
away by the water in spring. Tall grass grew along its edge. Putting it
aside with his hand, and cautiously looking through it, the hunter can
discern the huge shaggy back of the buffalo slowly swaying to and fro,
as with his clumsy swinging gait he advances toward the water. The
buffalo have regular paths by which they come down to drink. Seeing at
a glance along which of these his intended victim is moving, the hunter
crouches under the bank within fifteen or twenty yards, it may be, of
the point where the path enters the river. Here he sits down quietly on
the sand. Listening intently, he hears the heavy, monotonous tread of
the approaching bull. The moment after he sees a motion among the long
weeds and grass just at the spot where the path is channeled through the
bank. An enormous black head is thrust out, the horns just visible amid
the mass of tangled mane. Half sliding, half plunging, down comes the
buffalo upon the river-bed below. He steps out in full sight upon the
sands. Just before him a runnel of water is gliding, and he bends his
head to drink. You may hear the water as it gurgles down his capacious
throat. H