When camp was pitched the horses were turned loose to graze and refresh themselves after their trying journey,during which they had lost flesh woefully.They were watched and tended by the two men who were always left in camp,and,save on rare occasions,were only used to haul in the buffalo hides.The camp-guards for the time being acted as cooks;and,though coffee and flour both ran short and finally gave out,fresh meat of every kind was abundant.The camp was never without buffalo-beef,deer and antelope venison,wild turkeys,prairie-chickens,quails,ducks,and rabbits.The birds were simply "potted,"as occasion required;when the quarry was deer or antelope,the hunters took the dogs with them to run down the wounded animals.But almost the entire attention of the hunters was given to the buffalo.
After an evening spent in lounging round the campfire and a sound night's sleep,wrapped in robes and blankets,they would get up before daybreak,snatch a hurried breakfast,and start off in couples through the chilly dawn.The great beasts were very plentiful;in the first day's hunt twenty were slain;but the herds were restless and ever on the move.Sometimes they would be seen right by the camp,and again it would need an all-day's tramp to find them.There was no difficulty in spying them--the chief trouble with forest game;for on the prairie a buffalo makes no effort to hide and its black,shaggy bulk looms up as far as the eye can see.Sometimes they were found in small parties of three or four individuals,sometimes in bands of about two hundred,and again in great herds of many thousands;and solitary old bulls,expelled from the herds,were common.If on broken land,among the hills and ravines,there was not much difficulty in approaching from the leeward;for,though the sense of smell in the buffalo is very acute,they do not see well at a distance through their overhanging frontlets of coarse and matted hair.If,as was generally the case,they were out in the open,rolling prairie,the stalking was far more difficult.Every hollow,every earth hummock and sagebush had to be used as cover.The hunter wriggled through the grass flat on his face,pushing himself along for perhaps a quarter of a mile by his toes and fingers,heedless of the spiny cactus.When near enough to the huge,unconscious quarry the hunter began firing,still keeping himself carefully concealed.If the smoke was blown away by the wind,and if the buffaloes caught no glimpse of the assailant,they would often stand motionless and stupid until many of their number had been slain,the hunter being careful not to fire too high,aiming just behind the shoulder,about a third of the way up the body,that his bullet might go through the lungs.Sometimes,even after they saw the man,they would act as if confused and panic-struck,huddling together and staring at the smoke puffs;but generally they were off at a lumbering gallop as soon as they had an idea of the point of danger.When once started,they ran for many miles before halting,and their pursuit on foot was extremely laborious.
One morning my cousin and brother had been left in camp as guards.
They were sitting idly warming themselves in the first sunbeams,when their attention was sharply drawn to four buffaloes that were coming to the pool to drink.The beasts came down a game trail,a deep rut in the bluff,fronting where they were sitting,and they did not dare to stir for fear of being discovered.The buffaloes walked into the pool,and after drinking their fill,stood for some time with the water running out of their mouths,idly lashing their sides with their short tails,enjoying the bright warmth of the early sunshine;then,with much splashing and the gurgling of soft mud,they left the pool and clambered up the bluff with unwieldy agility.As soon as they turned,my brother and cousin ran for their rifles,but before they got back the buffaloes had crossed the bluff crest.Climbing after them,the two hunters found,when they reached the summit,that their game,instead of halting,had struck straight off across the prairie at a slow lope,doubtless intending to rejoin the herd they had left.After a moment's consultation the men went in pursuit,excitement overcoming their knowledge that they ought not,by rights,to leave camp.They struck a steady trot,following the animals by sight until they passed over a knoll,and then trailing them.Where the grass was long,as it was for the first four or five miles,this was a work of no difficulty,and they did not break their gait,only glancing now and then at the trial.As the sun rose and the day became warm,their breathing grew quicker;and the sweat rolled off their faces as they ran across the rough prairie sward,up and down the long inclines,now and then shifting their heavy rifles from one shoulder to the other.
But they were in good training,and they did not have to halt.At last they reached stretches of bare ground,sun-baked and grassless,where the trail grew dim;and here they had to go very slowly,carefully examining the faint dents and marks made in the soil by the heavy hoofs,and unravelling the trail from the mass of old footmarks.It was tedious work,but it enabled them to completely recover their breath by the time that they again struck the grassland;and but a few hundred yards from the edge,in a slight hollow,they saw the four buffaloes just entering a herd of fifty or sixty that were scattered out grazing.The herd paid no attention to the new-comers,and these immediately began to feed greedily.After a whispered consultation,the two hunters crept back,and made a long circle that brought them well to leeward of the herd,in line with a slight rise in the ground.
