Yet Before He Has Advanced Far Out Upon The
Sand, You See Him Stop; He Totters; His Knees Bend Under Him, And His
Head Sinks Forward To The Ground.
Then his whole vast bulk sways to
one side; he rolls over on the sand, and dies with a scarcely
perceptible struggle.
Waylaying the buffalo in this manner, and shooting them as they come
to water, is the easiest and laziest method of hunting them. They
may also be approached by crawling up ravines, or behind hills, or
even over the open prairie. This is often surprisingly easy; but at
other times it requires the utmost skill of the most experienced
hunter. Henry Chatillon was a man of extraordinary strength and
hardihood; but I have seen him return to camp quite exhausted with
his efforts, his limbs scratched and wounded, and his buckskin dress
stuck full of the thorns of the prickly-pear among which he had been
crawling. Sometimes he would lay flat upon his face, and drag
himself along in this position for many rods together.
On the second day of our stay at this place, Henry went out for an
afternoon hunt. Shaw and I remained in camp until, observing some
bulls approaching the water upon the other side of the river, we
crossed over to attack them. They were so near, however, that before
we could get under cover of the bank our appearance as we walked over
the sands alarmed them. Turning round before coming within gunshot,
they began to move off to the right in a direction parallel to the
river.
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