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Show 398 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. and the horses and mules, loosened from their · 1 . PIC {ets, were feedmg on the neighboring meadow. When d , we sat own to breakfast the prairie was still in the dusky light f . o mormng · and as the sun rose we were mounted and on . . ' ou1 way again ' A white buffalo!' exclaimed Munroe. . 'I'll have that fellow,' said Shaw, 'if I death after him.' run my horse to He threw the cover of his gun to Delorier and II d upon the prairie. ga ope out 'Stop, Mr. Shaw, stop!' called out Henry Chatillon, 'you'll run down your horse for nothing; it's only a white ox.' But Shaw was ah·eady out of hearing · 'Tl 1e ox, wh o 1 d 1a no. doubt strayed away from some of the government wagon trams, was standing beneath some low hills which bounded the plain in the distance. Not far from him a band of veritable buffalo bulls were grazing; and startled at Shaw's approach, they ~ll broke into a run, and went scrambling up the hillsides to gam th h · h · · b e 1g praine a ove. One of them in his haste and terror inv I d h · If · o ve Imse In a fatal catastrophe. Along the foot of the hills was a na1·1• w t . · f d . . . o s lip o eep marshy soil, mto wluch the bull plunged and hopelessly entangled himself. We all rode up to the spot. The huge carcass was half sunk in the mud which flowed t h' h' . o Is very c m, and h1s shaggy mane was outspread upon the surface. As we came near the bull began to struggle with convulsive strength · he writhed to and fro, and in the energy f h · ~ . h ' . . o Is Hig t and desperation would hft himself for a moment half out of the slouah while the reluc-t ant mi. re l'eturned k' 0 ' . . a sue mg sound as he strained to drag h1s hmbs from its tenac · d h . . · Ious ept s. We stimulated his exertwns by getting behind him and twisting his tail; nothing would do. THE BUFFALO CAMP. 399 There was clearly no hope tor him. After every effort his heaving sides were more deeply imbedded and the mire almost overflowed his nostrils ; he lay still at length, and looking round at us with a furious eye, seemed to resign himself to his fate. Ellis slowly dismounted, and deliberately levelling his boasted yager, shot the old bull through the heart; then he lazily climbed back again to his seat, pluming himself no doubt on having actually killed a buffalo. That day the invin~ cible yager drew blood for the first and last time during the whole journey. The morning was a bright and gay one, and the air so clear that on the farthest horizon the outline of the pale blue prairie was sharply drawn against the sky. Shaw felt in the mood for hunting; he rode in advance of the party, and before long we saw a file of bulls galloping at full speed upon a vast green swell of the prairie at some distance in front. Shaw came scouring along behind them, arrayed in his red shirt, which looked very well in the distance ; he gained fast on the fugitives, and as the foremost bull was disappearing behind the summit of the swell, we saw him in the act of assailing the hindmost ; a smoke sprang from the muzzle of his gun, and floated away before the wind like a little white cloud; the bull turned upon him, and just then the rising ground concealed them both from . VIew. We were moving forward until about noon, when we stopped by the side of the Arkansas. At that moment Shaw appeared riding slowly down the side of a distant hill; his horse was tired and jaded, and when he threw his saddle upon the ground, I observed that the tails of two bulls were dangling behind it. No sooner were ·the horses turned loose to feed than Henry, |
