in that many of the lower animals possess either
an "instinct," or a much keener sense in these matters than man himself.
Long before the thirsty traveller suspects the propinquity of water,
his sagacious mule, by her joyful hinney, and suddenly altered bearing,
warns him of its presence.

We now reasoned that if the buffalo had been making to some
watering-place, merely for the purpose of drinking and cooling their
flanks, they would, of course, make a delay there, and so give us a
chance of coming up. They had a day the start of us, it is true, but we
should do our best to overhaul them. The guides assured us we were
likely to have good sport before we came up with the great gang. There
were straggling groups they had no doubt, some perhaps not over thirsty,
that had hung in the rear. In high hopes, then, we turned our heads to
the trail, and travelled briskly forward.

We had not gone many hundred yards when a very singular scene was
presented to our eyes. We had gained the crest of a ridge, and were
looking down into a little valley through which ran the trail. At the
bottom of the valley a cloud of dust was constantly rising upward, and
very slowly moving away, as the day was quite calm. Although there had
been rain a little over thirty hours before, the ground was already
parched and dry as pepper. But what caused the dust to rise? Not the
wind--there was none. Some animal then, or likely more than one!

At first we could perceive no creature within the cloud, so dun and
thick was it; but after a little a wolf dashed out, ran round a bit, and
then rushed in again, and then another and another, all of them with
open jaws, glaring eyes, manes erect, and tails switching about in a
violent and angry manner. Now and then we could only see part of their
bodies, or their bushy tails flung upward, but we could hear by their
yelping barks that they were engaged in a fierce contest either among
themselves, or with some other enemy. It was not among themselves, as
Ike and Redwood both affirmed.

"An old bull 's the game," said they; and without waiting a moment, the
two trappers galloped forward, followed closely by the rest of our
party. We were soon in the bottom of the little valley. Ike already
cracking away at the wolves--his peculiar enemies. Several others, led
away by the excitement, also emptied their pieces at these worthless
creatures, slaying a number of them, while the rest, nearly a dozen in