The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-03
HUNTING BUFFALO WITH 4
 CAMERA.

Yesterday morning, as I looked
 from my window upon Croydon Moun-
 tain. the sun, which was rising behind
 it, silvered the white tree tops along it's summit The day before, white clouds
 enyeloped the top of Croydon, and the
 moisture which had condensed upon the
 tops of the eyergreens, had turned to. crystals in the night. IA grassy
 plateau to the west of the mountain,
 and just outside my garden, was also
 white with heavy coating of hoar
 frostS and upon this gleaming field a.
 herd of more than a hundred buffaloes
 stood facing the northwest gate, which opens directly from my garden into the
 Corbin game preserve. They had
 passed the night on a grassy hilltop, a mile to the southeast; had just charged
 down over woodland trail, and now |stood blowing clouds of vapor from their wet black nostrils. But they
 were not at their ease; all Of them were looking in the same direction and most of them were standing in attitudes which indicated either defiance or
 alarm. There was no one in sight, and for minute I could not tell what the trouble was about. Then I saw the klean, gray form of my tame wolf, Romuius, who, with ears laid back. and displaying long line of white teeth, stood snarling at the wondering mon sters on the other side of the fence.
 Presently he sent up A long, savage
 howl in response to which the buffa- 1 loes elevated their tails, and snorting, paved the earth. And as there was lthe promise of bright day, took my Ecarnera, a score of plates and a field
 glass, and set out prepared to hunt the buffalo until sunset, or until all my Ammunition was gone.
 After entering thsaiEate. | walked quietly eastward, along tlie fence, pre- ltending not to see the buffaIoes, for, often as not, the moment they sec that they are .3attracting special attention, they will give a few grunts of alarm, and gallop off, leaving you to follow Ithem over hill and dale for a mile or I two, and then another mile or two af- | ter that, if you are not careful. After
 getting well to the east of the herd, I crawled along cover of stone wall, until the animals were within Reasonable range. From where I lay, the ground slanted slightly upwards toward the west, so the dark forms of the buffaloes were in good relief lagainst the light brown grass. Some | of them were lying down now. and, slipping the nozzle of the camera
 through a gap in the wall, I got a pie ture of them in this position. I then
 worked round them until I could get them against the sky, for this is one of
 the best of all backgrounds for buffa-
 loes.. In order to do this, however, I was obliged to show myself, but as I walked along as though on business in
 some other part of the preserve, the ianiinals took no notice of me. One photograph of the herd in the distance,
 and another at much closer range, were
 the result of this manoeuvre, and the buffaloes, finding that no harm came from my presence, now seemed pre- pared for even further advances. As I sauntered very slowly toward them; those which were lying down quickly
 arose to their feet, and all of them gave me their undivided attention.
 After. getting two more snaps at the
 herd. began to try for pictures of individuals. But first I sat down and Iwaited, that they might become used to seeing me near them. Two or three
 animals, however, were getting rest
 less, and one young four-year-old bull
 kept grunting from time to time, as
 though giving it as his opinoin that I
 was not to be trusted. Presently he lgave an emphatic grunt and started
 to walk away in the direction of a val
 ley to the south, and knew that, If
 he ever broke into a trot going down
 that hillside, the entire herd would fol- | low him like sheep through a gap in
 the fence. So, as through accident, I Iquickly placed myself between him and
 the valley, and he, finding that his
 move was checked, trotted back to his Icompanions, and the danger of a stam- lpede was for the moment averted.
 Incidentally, I had obtained a portrait
 of this animal, and now there was a
 chance for another of a COW and calf,
 who were standing just above me with
 their bodies we'll against the sky. The lcalf was busy sucking his mother, lpunching her hard with his head every
 few minutes, and, as he now had horns
 several inches long, he must have been
 something of a trial. As he stood, his
 body was always parallel to hers, and