by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
APPROACHING THE BUFFALO.
Next morning, just as we were preparing to resume our journey, a gang ofbuffalo appeared upon one of the swells, at the distance of a mile or amile and a half from our camp. There were about a dozen of them, and,as our guides asserted, they were all cows. This was just what wewanted, as the flesh of the cows is much more delicate than that of thebulls, and were eager to lay in a stock of it.
A hurried consultation was held, in which it was debated as to the bestmanner of making an attack upon the herd. Some advised that we shouldride boldly forward, and overtake the cows by sheer swiftness, but thismode was objected to by others. The cows are at times very shy. Theymight break off long before we were near, and give our horses such agallop as would render them useless for the rest of the day. Besides,our animals were in no condition for such exercise. Our stock of cornhad run out, and the grass feeding and hard travelling had reduced mostof them to skeletons. A hard gallop was therefore to be avoided ifpossible.
Among those who counselled a different course wore the guides Ike andRedwood. These men thought it would be much better to try the cows by"approaching," that is, by endeavouring to creep up, and get a shot whennear enough. The ground was favourable enough for it, as there werehere and there little clumps of cactus plants and bushes of the wildsage (_artemisia_), behind which a hunter might easily conceal himself.The trappers farther alleged that the herd would not be likely to makeoff at the first shot, unless the hunter discovered himself. On thecontrary, one after another might fall, and not frighten the rest, solong as these did not get to leeward, and detect the presence of theirenemy by the scent.
The wind was in our favour, and this was a most important consideration.Had it been otherwise the game would have "winded" us at a mile'sdistance, as they can recognise the smell of man, and frequentlycomprehend the danger of being near such an enemy. Indeed, it is ontheir great power of scent that the buffalo most commonly rely forwarning. The eyes of these creatures, and particularly the bulls, areso covered with the shaggy hair hanging over them, that individuals areoften seen quite blinded by it, and a hunter, if he keep silent enough,may walk up and lay his hand upon them, without having been previouslynoticed. This, however, can only occur when the hunter travels againstthe wind. Otherwise he finds the buffalo as shy and difficult toapproach as most game, and many along spoil of crouching and crawlinghas been made to no purpose--a single sniff of the approaching enemyproving enough to startle the game, and send it off in wild flight.
Ike and his brother trapper urged that if the approach should proveunsuccessful there would still be time to "run" the herd, as those whodid not attempt the former method might keep in their saddles, and beready to gallop forward.
All this was feasible enough; and it was therefore decided that the"approach" should have a trial. The trappers had already preparedthemselves for this sort of thing. They were evidently desirous ofgiving us an exhibition of their hunter-prowess, and we were ready towitness it. We had noticed them busied with a pair of large wolf-skins,which they had taken off the animals entire, with the heads, ears,tails, etcetera, remaining upon the skins. The purpose of these was toenable the hunters to disguise themselves as wolves, and thus crawlwithin shooting distance of the buffalo herd.
Strange to say this is quite possible. Although no creature is agreater enemy to the buffalo than the wolf, the former, as alreadystated, permits the latter to approach quite close to him without makingany attempt to chase him off, or without exhibiting the slightestsymptoms of fear on his own account. The buffalo cannot prevent thewolf from prowling close about him, as the latter is sufficientlyactive, and can easily get out of the way when pursued by the bulls--onthe other hand, the buffaloes, unless when separated from the herd, orin some way disabled, have no fear of the wolf. Under ordinarycircumstances they seem wholly to disregard his presence. Theconsequence is, that a wolf-skin is a favourite disguise of the Indiansfor approaching the buffalo, and our trappers, Ike and Redwood, hadoften practised this _ruse_. We were likely then to see sport.
Both were soon equipped in their white wolf-skins, their heads beingenveloped with the skins of the wolves' heads, and the remainder tiedwith thongs, so as to cover their backs and sides. At best the skinsformed but a scanty covering to the bodies of the trappers; but, as wehave already remarked, the buffalo has not a very keen sense of sight,and so long as the decoys kept to leeward, they would not be closelyscrutinised.
When fairly in their new dress, the hunters parted from the company,leaving their horses at the camp. The rest of us sat in our saddles,ready to gallop forward, in case the _ruse_ did not succeed, and makethat kind of a hunt called "running." Of course the trappers went asfar as was safe, walking in an upright attitude; but long before theyhad got within shot, we saw both of them stoop down and scramble alongin a crouching way, and then at length they knelt upon the ground, andproceeded upon their hands and knees.
It required a good long time to enable them to get near enough; and weon horseback, although watching every manoeuvre with interest, werebeginning to get impatient. The buffalo, however, quietly browsingalong the sward, seemed to be utterly unconscious of the dangerous foethat was approaching them, and at intervals one or another would flingitself to the earth in play, and after kicking and wallowing a fewseconds, start to its feet again. They were all cows, with oneexception--a bull--who seemed to be the guardian and leader. Even at amile's distance, we could recognise the shape and size of the latter, ascompletely differing from all the rest. The bull seemed to be moreactive than any, moving around the flock, and apparently watching overtheir safety.
As the decoys approached, we thought that the bull seemed to take noticeof them. He had moved out to that side of the herd, and seemed for amoment to scrutinise them as they drew near. But for a moment, however,for he turned apparently satisfied, and was soon close in to the gang.
Ike and Redwood had at length got so close, that we were expecting everymoment to see the flash of their pieces. They were not so close,however, as we in the distance fancied them to be.
Just at this moment we perceived another buffalo--a large bull--runningup behind them. He had just made his appearance over a ridge, and wasnow on his way to join the herd. The decoys were directly in his way,and these did not appear to see him until he had run almost betweenthem, so intent were they on watching the others. His intrusion,however, evidently disconcerted them, spoiling their plans, while in thevery act of being carried into execution. They were, no doubt, a littlestartled by the apparition of such a huge shaggy animal coming sosuddenly on them, for both started to their feet as if alarmed. Theirpieces blazed at the same time, and the intruder was seen rolling overupon the plain.
But the _ruse_ was over. The bull that guarded the herd was witness tothis odd encounter, and bellowing a loud alarm to his companions, setoff at a lumbering gallop. All the rest followed as fast as their legswould carry them.
Fortunately they ran, not directly from us, but in a line that inclinedto our left. By taking a diagonal course we might yet head them, andwithout another word our whole party put to the spur, and sprang offover the prairie.
It cost us a five-mile gallop before any of us came within shootingdistance; and only four of us did get so near--the naturalist, Besancon,the Kentuckian, and myself. Our horses were well blown, but after agood deal of encouragement we got them side by side with the flyinggame.
Each one chose his own, and then delivered his shot at his bestconvenience. The consequence was, that four of the cows were strewedout along the path, and rewarded us for our hard gallop. The rest, onaccount of saving our horses, were suffered to make their escape.
As we had now plenty of excellent meat, it was resolved to encamp again,and remain for some time on that spot, until we had rested our horsesafter their long journey, when we should make a fresh search for thebuffalo, and have another "run" or two out of them.
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