ng it aside with his hand, and cautiously looking
through it, the hunter can discern the huge shaggy back of the buffalo
slowly swaying to and fro, as with his clumsy swinging gait he advances
toward the water. The buffalo have regular paths by which they come down
to drink. Seeing at a glance along which of these his intended victim
is moving, the hunter crouches under the bank within fifteen or twenty
yards, it may be, of the point where the path enters the river. Here he
sits down quietly on the sand. Listening intently, he hears the heavy
monotonous tread of the approaching bull. The moment after he sees a
motion among the long weeds and grass just at the spot where the path
is channeled through the bank. An enormous black head is thrust out,
the horns just visible amid the mass of tangled mane. Half sliding, half
plunging, down comes the buffalo upon the river-bed below. He steps
out in full sight upon the sands. Just before him a runnel of water is
gliding, and he bends his head to drink. You may hear the water as it
gurgles down his capacious throat. He raises his head, and the drops
trickle from his wet beard. He stands with an air of stupid abstraction,
unconscious of the lurking danger. Noiselessly the hunter cocks his
rifle. As he sits upon the sand, his knee is raised, and his elbow rests
upon it, that he may level his heavy weapon with a steadier aim. The
stock is at his shoulder; his eye ranges along the barrel. Still he is
in no haste to fire. The bull, with slow deliberation, begins his march
over the sands to the other side. He advances his foreleg, and exposes
to view a small spot, denuded of hair, just behind the point of his
shoulder; upon this the hunter brings the sight of his rifle to bear;
lightly and delicately his finger presses upon the hair-trigger. Quick
as thought the spiteful crack of the rifle responds to his slight touch,
and instantly in the middle of the bare spot appears a small red dot.
The buffalo shivers; death has overtaken him, he cannot tell from
whence; still he does not fall, but walks heavily forward, as if nothing
had happened. 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 e