The herd ran up a hill, and I followed in pursuit. The bullet, entering too much in the rear, failed to disable the bull, for a buffalo requires to be shot at particular points, or he will certainly escape. At the report, Pontiac swerved so much that I was again thrown a little behind the game. At length I urged my horse close behind a bull, and after trying in vain, by blows and spurring, to bring him alongside, I shot a bullet into the buffalo from this disadvantageous position. The fugitives, indeed, offered no very attractive spectacle, with their enormous size and weight, their s.h.a.ggy manes and the tattered remnants of their last winter's hair covering their backs in irregular shreds and patches, and flying off in the wind as they ran. He showed a curious mixture of eagerness and terror, straining to overtake the panic-stricken herd, but constantly recoiling in dismay as we drew near. Old Pontiac ran like a frantic elephant up hill and down hill, his ponderous hoofs striking the prairie like sledge-hammers. The buffalo now broke into several small bodies, scampering over the hills in different directions, and I lost sight of Shaw neither of us knew where the other had gone. But as we drew near, their alarm and speed increased our horses showed signs of the utmost fear, bounding violently aside as we approached, and refusing to enter among the herd.
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We followed, spurring our horses to full speed and as the herd rushed, crowding and trampling in terror through an opening in the hills, we were close at their heels, half suffocated by the clouds of dust. Instantly they took the alarm those on the hill descended those below gathered into a ma.s.s, and the whole got in motion, shouldering each other along at a clumsy gallop. We dismounted behind the ridge just out of sight, drew our saddle-girths, examined our pistols, and mounting again rode over the hill, and descended at a canter toward them, bending close to our horses' necks.
Making a circuit to keep out of sight, we rode toward them until we ascended a hill within a furlong of them, beyond which nothing intervened that could possibly screen us from their view. Some were scattered grazing over a green declivity, while the rest were crowded more densely together in the wide hollow below.
At length, a mile in advance, we saw a band of bulls. There was some foundation for such an apprehension, for the ground was none of the best for a race, and grew worse continually as we proceeded indeed it soon became desperately bad, consisting of abrupt hills and deep hollows, cut by frequent ravines not easy to pa.s.s. "There's no wood about here to make a litter for the wounded man I have an idea that one of us will need something of the sort before the day is over."