atuation became so complete, that the
worthy naturalist was beginning, by a desperate effort of scientific
resolution, even to class the different specimens. On the other hand,
Paul shouted, and called on Ellen to come and assist him in shouting,
but his voice was lost in the bellowings and trampling of the herd.
Furious, and yet strangely excited by the obstinacy of the brutes and
the wildness of the sight, and nearly maddened by sympathy and a
species of unconscious apprehension, in which the claims of nature were
singularly mingled with concern for his mistress, he nearly split his
throat in exhorting his aged friend to interfere.

"Come forth, old trapper," he shouted, "with your prairie inventions! or
we shall be all smothered under a mountain of buffaloe humps!"

The old man, who had stood all this while leaning on his rifle, and
regarding the movements of the herd with a steady eye, now deemed it
time to strike his blow. Levelling his piece at the foremost bull,
with an agility that would have done credit to his youth, he fired. The
animal received the bullet on the matted hair between his horns, and
fell to his knees: but shaking his head he instantly arose, the very
shock seeming to increase his exertions. There was now no longer time to
hesitate. Throwing down his rifle, the trapper stretched forth his
arms, and advanced from the cover with naked hands, directly towards the
rushing column of the beasts.

The figure of a man, when sustained by the firmness and steadiness that
intellect can only impart, rarely fails of commanding respect from all
the inferior animals of the creation. The leading bulls recoiled, and
for a single instant there was a sudden stop to their speed, a dense
mass of bodies rolling up in front, until hundreds were seen floundering
and tumbling on the plain. Then came another of those hollow bellowings
from the rear, and set the herd again in motion. The head of the column,
however, divided. The immovable form of the trapper, cutting it, as it
were, into two gliding streams of life. Middleton and Paul instantly
profited by his example, and extended the feeble barrier by a similar
exhibition of their own persons.

For a few moments, the new impulse given to the animals in front, served
to protect the thicket. But, as the body of the herd pressed more and
more upon the open line of its defenders, and the dust thickened, so as
to obscure their persons, there was, at each instant, a renewed