knoll, where the forest was open and where there was much down timber.
After leaving the day beds the animals had at first fed separately
around the grassy base and sides of the knoll, and had then made off in
their usual single file, going straight to a small pool in the forest.
After drinking they had left this pool, and travelled down towards the
gorge at the mouth of the basin, the trail leading along the sides of
the steep hill, which were dotted by open glades; while the roar of the
cataracts by which the stream was broken, ascended from below. Here we
moved with redoubled caution, for the sign had grown very fresh and the
animals had once more scattered and begun feeding. When the trail led
across the glades we usually skirted them so as to keep in the timber.

At last, on nearing the edge of one of these glades we saw a movement
among the young trees on the other side, not fifty yards away. Peering
through the safe shelter yielded by some thick evergreen bushes, we
speedily made out three bison, a cow, a calf, and a yearling, grazing
greedily on the other side of the glade, under the fringing timber; all
with their heads up hill. Soon another cow and calf stepped out after
them. I did not wish to shoot, waiting for the appearance of the big
bull which I knew was accompanying them.

So for several minutes I watched the great, clumsy, shaggy beasts, as
all unconscious they grazed in the open glade. Behind them rose the dark
pines. At the left of the glade the ground fell away to form the side of
a chasm; down in its depths the cataracts foamed and thundered; beyond,
the huge mountains towered, their crests crimsoned by the sinking
sun. Mixed with the eager excitement of the hunter was a certain half
melancholy feeling as I gazed on these bison, themselves part of the
last remnant of a doomed and nearly vanished race. Few, indeed, are
the men who now have, or evermore shall have, the chance of seeing the
mightiest of American beasts, in all his wild vigor, surrounded by the
tremendous desolation of his far-off mountain home.

At last, when I had begun to grow very anxious lest the others should
take alarm, the bull likewise appeared on the edge of the glade, and
stood with outstretched head, scratching his throat against a young
tree, which shook violently. I aimed low, behind his shoulder, and
pulled trigger. At the crack of the rifle all the bison, without the
momentary halt of terror-struck surprise so common a