udicrous
that I could not help pausing for a moment to look at him. As I came
near, he would try to rush upon me, nearly throwing himself down at
every awkward attempt. Looking up, I saw the whole body of Indians full
a hundred yards in advance. I lashed Pauline in pursuit and reached
them just in time, for as we mingled among them, each hunter, as if by
a common impulse, violently struck his horse, each horse sprang forward
convulsively, and scattering in the charge in order to assail the entire
herd at once, we all rushed headlong upon the buffalo. We were among
them in an instant. Amid the trampling and the yells I could see their
dark figures running hither and thither through clouds of dust, and the
horsemen darting in pursuit. While we were charging on one side, our
companions had attacked the bewildered and panic-stricken herd on
the other. The uproar and confusion lasted but for a moment. The dust
cleared away, and the buffalo could be seen scattering as from a common
center, flying over the plain singly, or in long files and small compact
bodies, while behind each followed the Indians, lashing their horses to
furious speed, forcing them close upon their prey, and yelling as they
launched arrow after arrow into their sides. The large black carcasses
were strewn thickly over the ground. Here and there wounded buffalo were
standing, their bleeding sides feathered with arrows; and as I rode past
them their eyes would glare, they would bristle like gigantic cats, and
feebly attempt to rush up and gore my horse.

I left camp that morning with a philosophic resolution. Neither I nor
my horse were at that time fit for such sport, and I had determined to
remain a quiet spectator; but amid the rush of horses and buffalo, the
uproar and the dust, I found it impossible to sit still; and as four or
five buffalo ran past me in a line, I drove Pauline in pursuit. We went
plunging close at their heels through the water and the quick-sands,
and clambering the bank, chased them through the wild-sage bushes that
covered the rising ground beyond. But neither her native spirit nor the
blows of the knotted bull-hide could supply the place of poor Pauline's
exhausted strength. We could not gain an inch upon the poor fugitives.
At last, however, they came full upon a ravine too wide to leap over;
and as this compelled them to turn abruptly to the left, I contrived to
get within ten or twelve yards of the hindmost. At this she faced abo