e prairie
on its flank, and as I drew near they faced toward me with such a shaggy
and ferocious look that I thought it best to proceed no farther. Indeed
I was already within close rifle-shot of the column, and I sat down on
the ground to watch their movements. Sometimes the whole would stand
still, their heads all facing one way; then they would trot forward,
as if by a common impulse, their hoofs and horns clattering together
as they moved. I soon began to hear at a distance on the left the sharp
reports of a rifle, again and again repeated; and not long after, dull
and heavy sounds succeeded, which I recognized as the familiar voice
of Shaw's double-barreled gun. When Henry's rifle was at work there was
always meat to be brought in. I went back across the river for a horse,
and returning, reached the spot where the hunters were standing. The
buffalo were visible on the distant prairie. The living had retreated
from the ground, but ten or twelve carcasses were scattered in various
directions. Henry, knife in hand, was stooping over a dead cow, cutting
away the best and fattest of the meat.

When Shaw left me he had walked down for some distance under the river
bank to find another bull. At length he saw the plains covered with
the host of buffalo, and soon after heard the crack of Henry's rifle.
Ascending the bank, he crawled through the grass, which for a rod or two
from the river was very high and rank. He had not crawled far before to
his astonishment he saw Henry standing erect upon the prairie, almost
surrounded by the buffalo. Henry was in his appropriate element. Nelson,
on the deck of the Victory, hardly felt a prouder sense of mastery than
he. Quite unconscious that any one was looking at him, he stood at the
full height of his tall, strong figure, one hand resting upon his side,
and the other arm leaning carelessly on the muzzle of his rifle. His
eyes were ranging over the singular assemblage around him. Now and then
he would select such a cow as suited him, level his rifle, and shoot her
dead; then quietly reloading, he would resume his former position. The
buffalo seemed no more to regard his presence than if he were one of
themselves; the bulls were bellowing and butting at each other, or else
rolling about in the dust. A group of buffalo would gather about the
carcass of a dead cow, snuffing at her wounds; and sometimes they would
come behind those that had not yet fallen, and endeavor to push them
from