ey might have
scented us and have taken the alarm. In this way we succeeded in getting
round the herd without disturbing it. It consisted of about forty head,
bulls, cows, and calves.

Separating to some distance from each other, we now approached slowly in
a parallel line, hoping by degrees to steal near without exciting
attention. They began, however, to move off quietly, stopping at every
step or two to graze, when suddenly a bull that, unobserved by us, had
been taking his siesta under a clump of trees to our left, roused
himself from his lair and hastened to join his companions. We were still
at a considerable distance, but the game had taken the alarm. We
quickened our pace, they broke into a gallop, and now commenced a full
chase.

As the ground was level, they shouldered along with great speed,
following each other in a line; two or three bulls bringing up the rear,
the last of whom, from his enormous size and venerable frontlet, and
beard of sun-burnt hair, looked like the patriarch of the herd, and as
if he might long have reigned the monarch of the prairie.

There is a mixture of the awful and the comic in the look of these huge
animals, as they bear their great bulk forward, with an up-and-down
motion of the unwieldy head and shoulders, their tail cocked up like the
queue of Pantaloon in a pantomime, the end whisking about in a fierce
yet whimsical style, and their eyes glaring venomously with an
expression of fright and fury.

For some time I kept parallel with the line without being able to force
my horse within pistol-shot, so much had he been alarmed by the assault
of the buffalo in the preceding chase. At length I succeeded, but was
again balked by my pistols missing fire. My companions, whose horses
were less fleet and more way-worn, could not overtake the herd; at
length Mr. L----, who was in the rear of the line and losing ground,
levelled his double-barrelled gun and fired a long raking shot. It
struck a buffalo just above the loins, broke its backbone, and brought
it to the ground. He stopped and alighted to despatch his prey, when,
borrowing his gun, which had yet a charge remaining in it, I put my
horse to his speed, and again overtook the herd, which was thundering
along, pursued by the count. With my present weapon there was no need of
urging my horse to such close quarters; galloping along parallel,
therefore, I singled out a buffalo, and by a fortunate shot brought it
down on the spot. T