a direction parallel to the river. I climbed up
the bank and ran after them. They were walking swiftly, and before I
could come within gunshot distance they slowly wheeled about and faced
toward me. Before they had turned far enough to see me I had fallen flat
on my face. For a moment they stood and stared at the strange object
upon the grass; then turning away, again they walked on as before; and
I, rising immediately ran once more in pursuit. Again they wheeled
about, and again I fell prostrate. Repeating this three or four times, I
came at length within a hundred yards of the fugitives, and as I saw
them turning again I sat down and leveled my rifle. The one in the
center was the largest I had ever seen. I shot him behind the shoulder.
His two companions ran off. He attempted to follow, but soon came to a
stand, and at length lay down as quietly as an ox chewing the cud.
Cautiously approaching him, I saw by his dull and jellylike eye that he
was dead.

When I began the chase, the prairie was almost tenantless; but a great
multitude of buffalo had suddenly thronged upon it, and looking up, I
saw within fifty rods a heavy, dark column stretching to the right and
left as far as I could see. I walked toward them. My approach did not
alarm them in the least. The column itself consisted entirely of cows
and calves, but a great many old bulls were ranging about the prairie on
its flank, and as I drew near they faced toward me with such a shaggy
and ferocious look that I thought it best to proceed no farther. Indeed,
I was already within close rifle-shot of the column, and I sat down on
the ground to watch their movements. Sometimes the whole would stand
still, their heads all facing one way; then they would trot forward, as
if by common impulse, their hoofs and horns clattering together as they
moved.

I soon began to hear at a distance on the left the sharp reports of a
rifle, again and again repeated; and not long after, dull and heavy
sounds succeeded, which I recognized as the familiar voice of Shaw's
double-barreled gun. When Henry's rifle was at work there was always
meat to be brought in. I went back across the river for a horse, and
returning, reached the spot where the hunters were standing. The buffalo
were visible on the distant prairie. The living had retreated from the
ground, but ten or twelve carcasses were scattered in various
directions. Henry, knife in hand, was stooping over a dead cow, cutting
away th