The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1880-07-10
Z" Wiped Out".--A Graphic Picture Of 0
Buffalo Stampede.
What is thati

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Look closer and you will see that it
is a gaunt, grim wolf, creeping out of
the little grove of cottonwoods towards
buffalo calf gamboling around its
mother.
Raise your eyes little more and you
will see that the prairie beyond is alive
with buffalo. Count them! Youmight
as well try to count the leaves on a
giant maple! They are moving foot by
foot as they crop the juicy grass, and
living waves rise and fail as the herd
slowly sweep on. Afar out to right and
left-mere specks on the plain, are the
flankers-brave old bufaloes, which
catch bite of grass and then sniff the
air and scan the horizon for intimation
of danger. They are the sentinels of
the herd, and right. well can they be
trusted.
The wolf creeps neareri
All the afternoon the great herd has
fed in peace, and as it now slowly moves
towards the distant river it is all uncon-
scious that danger is near. Look you
well and watch the wolf, for you are
going to see such sight as not one man
in ten thousand has ever beheld.
Creep-crawl-sk behind
knoll-now drawing himself over the
grass-now raising its head above
thistle to. mark the locality of its victim.
1t is lone, stumbling, skulking wolf,
lame and spiteful and treacherous.
Wounded or ailing he has been left
alone to get on as best he may and his
green eyes light up with fiercer blaze
as he draws nearer and nearer to his
unconscious prey.
There! No, he is yet too far away.
Creep-creep-creep! Now he is twen-
ty feet away-now fifteen, now ten.
He hugs the earth, gathers his feet un-
der him, and he bounds through the air
as if shot from gun. He is rolling the
calf over and over on the grass in three
seconds after he springs.
Now watch!
A cry of pain from the Gala furious
below from the mother as she wheels
and charges the wolf, startled move
ment from dozen of the nearest ami
mails, and rush begins. The wolf is
into hundred the hundred
into a thousand. Short, sharp bellows
snorts of alarm-a rush, and in fifty
seconds after the wolf has wet his fangs
with blood that living mass is in mo-
ton to get away from an unknown ter
ror. The waves rise higher and higher
as the confusion spreads. One instant
it seems as if ten thousand solid acres
OF prairie were moving bodily away
again waves rise and fall as the towards
behind rush upon those in front who
wait to sniff the air and learn the dam
ger. In one minute the alarm runs
down the herd to the leaders-further
than the eye can see, and the entire
herd is going off at mad gallop, heads
down, eyes rolling, and no thought but
that OF escape. If Lake Erie were to
lash itself against a wall the shock
would be no greater than the awful
crash with which this mass of rafting
noofs, sharp horns and hairy bodies
would meet it. The clatter of hoofs
md rattle of horns would drown the
noise OF brigade of cavalry galloping
over stone-paved road.
Ride out on their trail. Here where
he stampede began the ground is torn
md furrowed as if thousand cannon
lad been firing solid shot at targets.
Here and there are calves which have
'een gored or crushed-here and there
'lder animals with broken legs and dis
bling wounds. Here, where the herd
vas fairly of. you might as well hunt
or gold dollar as blade of grass.
lou look for three miles as you look
cross it. 1t is trail of dirt and dust
nd ruts and burrows. where half an
our ago was q carpet of green grass
nd smiling flowers. The most dread
III cyclone known to man could not
ave left more horrible scars behind.
Miles away, on the bank of a winding,
rowling river, are three white-topped
migrant wagons. A campfire blazes
P to boil the kettles-men, women and
hildren stand about, peering over the ,
citing sun at the distant mountains and |