Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-08-17


instantly disappeared.
II looked from the spot where he
had gone down and saw to my horror
that what had crossed as safe land
had now sunk under the combined
weight of the herd and that between
my frail raft and the dry land was
now fully eighty feet of quagmire
filled with drowning and fighting
animals, some of which were knee
deep, while others barely had their
noses out of water. The struggles
and cries of the poor creatures were
horrible to witness, as one after an
other they were trampled under foot
and pressed under water by the
stronger among the herd crowding
, forward.
..Up to this time but few of them
had succeeded in fighting their way
! through the thick slime to the island
upon which had taken refuge, and
these l had been forced to shoot for
my self-protection
! There was one, howev - that
nearly proved too much foi me. A
young and sturdy bull after making
the others, during which he slipped
and half fell three or four times only
to recover himself with snort of
terror, finally reached the end of his
living bridge, and gathering himself
for last effort. attempted to spring
upon my stronghold. Fortunately
for me, the great fellow slipped, and
falling short. succeeded only in strik-
ing the island with his massive
woody head.
LAS matter of course the shock
recovered myself the bull had got
one leg upon the mass and had half
raised himself from the water.
My rifle was empty, so welded
it as club, striking him upon the
nose until his roars echoed down the
ravine; but for all my clubbing |
could not drive him back, and in an
other instant he had secured a foot
ing with the other leg.
Never shall l forget the agony of
that misunderstanding as | did upon
a small moss island scarcely twelve
feet in diameter with a bottomless
quagmire all round and an enraged
buffalo drawing me resistlessly into
the folds of the heaving, bubbling
mud, in which were either dead or
dying a full hundred of the wild
cattle.
AT that moment l remembered
my hunting knife, and, drawing it
, from my belt, drove it to the hilt
into the bulls neck.
! The blow was good one, and as
the warm life blood poured from his
mouth and nostrils, l knew that l
, was saved. A moment later the
huge, strong form sank lifelessly
into the mire; the island righted
! itself and / was again master of the
situation.
1.-The rest was comparatively easy,
although on one occasion | had as
many as a dozen struggling animals
close around me, and all clamoring
for admittance at the same time.
But the poor creatures were too
weak to raise themselves; in fact,
most of them sunk without causing
me much trouble, and very soon all
became still, but never had the
! moon shown down upon a more
! CHASTITY struggle for existence than
had occupied the last half hour
After casting around for some
time for a means of reaching the
shore finally succeeded in crossing
upon the backs of the dead buffaloes,
but it was ticklish work.
: We'll, to cut long story short,
: for this ia NV farm which wa ara
coming to, l managed to get enough
hides out of that pool to make my
trip very profitable one. but | had
to get a new horse before / could
! market them, for the old one l never
saw again s,