lls, parallel to the course of the Arkansas. All was one
expanse of grass; there was no wood in view, except some trees and
stunted bushes upon two islands which rose from amid the wet sands of
the river. Yet far from being dull and tame this boundless scene was
often a wild and animated one; for twice a day, at sunrise and at noon,
the buffalo came issuing from the hills, slowly advancing in their grave
processions to drink at the river. All our amusements were too at their
expense. Except an elephant, I have seen no animal that can surpass a
buffalo bull in size and strength, and the world may be searched in vain
to find anything of a more ugly and ferocious aspect. At first sight of
him every feeling of sympathy vanishes; no man who has not experienced
it can understand with what keen relish one inflicts his death wound,
with what profound contentment of mind he beholds him fall. The cows are
much smaller and of a gentler appearance, as becomes their sex. While
in this camp we forebore to attack them, leaving to Henry Chatillon, who
could better judge their fatness and good quality, the task of killing
such as we wanted for use; but against the bulls we waged an unrelenting
war. Thousands of them might be slaughtered without causing any
detriment to the species, for their numbers greatly exceed those of the
cows; it is the hides of the latter alone which are used for purpose of
commerce and for making the lodges of the Indians; and the destruction
among them is therefore altogether disproportioned.

Our horses were tired, and we now usually hunted on foot. The wide, flat
sand-beds of the Arkansas, as the reader will remember, lay close by
the side of our camp. While we were lying on the grass after dinner,
smoking, conversing, or laughing at Tete Rouge, one of us would look
up and observe, far out on the plains beyond the river, certain black
objects slowly approaching. He would inhale a parting whiff from the
pipe, then rising lazily, take his rifle, which leaned against the cart,
throw over his shoulder the strap of his pouch and powder-horn, and
with his moccasins in his hand walk quietly across the sand toward the
opposite side of the river. This was very easy; for though the sands
were about a quarter of a mile wide, the water was nowhere more than two
feet deep. The farther bank was about four or five feet high, and quite
perpendicular, being cut away by the water in spring. Tall grass grew
along its edge. Putti