The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1910-04-30

lar DdCh, and OH ne Went In the
meantime the other one in the clump,
after kicking and plunging abou9
picked himself up and went after his
companion, and as l saw that he was
very lame | made so certain that he
would not go far that I did not fire
at him again. Before following them
l took a hasty survey of the ground
and found my suspicious confirmed, 4
They had returned on their own spoo1S
when l first saw them trotting back
and had | not seen them, l should
| have followed up their spoor which /
found led close past the bush they
were in, and they might have made
themselves disagreeable and taken me
at disadvantage. l then hurried
after them with the eight-bore, and
outrunnlng my gun bearer, soon over
took them, as they were both lame,
getting within 70 yards, when the one
which had received the four-bore bull
let, and was trif1e. behind the other.
evidently heard me- coming along be-
hind him, as he whisked around and
stood staring at me, broadside on,
whilst the other continued to retreat.
Sitting down (my favorite position,
and as l was much blown after my
run with a heavy rifie) l took a steady
shot at his shoulder, and distinctly
heard the bullet strike, but it had abb
solutely no effect and the beast never
even finched. Hastily jamming in an
other cartridge in order to have one
in reserve in case he should charge,
again fired at his shoulder, and he
dropped as if struck by lightning; he
fell so quickly that | did not see him
fall. He was, however, not dead, as
l could see his side heaving above the
top of the grass as he lay. By this
time the gun bearers had come up,
followed shortly afterwards by the
rest of the men, who had come on
when they had heard the first two
shots, and who on seeing that the
beast was down, ran up like pack of
wolves to "chinja" 1T e. to cut its
throat. Knowing, however that it was
not dead I ran forward and shouted
to them not to go near; but they were
too excited to pay heed to my Wranlng,
and were standing all round it, when
after desperate effort to regain its
legs, it jumped up, the men flying IN
all directions. Catching sight of my
second gun bearer who had also gone
up to it, and who at the time was car
ryfng my four-bore rife, it went
straight for him. The man bolted
and finding that the buffalo was close
upon him, dropped the rifle-the stock
of which was snapped short off at the
grip by the buffalo treading on it-and
ran for dear life, the beast being
within few inches of him and giving
vent to a furious grunt at each step.
For some little time I was unable to
shoot, as the rest Of the men were
scattered and lodging about between
myself and the buffalo, so | shouted
to the gun bearer to run towards me,
which he did, and I was able to fire,
but the eight-bore bullet had appar-
emily no effect on the infuTiated beast.
At the same moment the man doubled
and ran straight away from me. max
ing for a small tree about a 100 yards
off, twisting and turning as he ran,
but the buffalo still stuck close to
him and doubled as qu+ ekly as the
man did. All this time | was tearing
along in pursuit, hoping to get shot,
but did not dare fire for fear of hit
ting the man, who was lodging about
from side to side, and I was some
sixty yards behind when they reached
the tree. This the man endeaVored
to catch hold of so as to swing him
self round, but he was going so fast
that the impetus caused his hand to
slip, and he tripped up and fell for
ward fat on his face into the grass
which was some two and one-haf
feet high under the shade of the tree.
The buffalo being SO close to him at
the time overshot him, but whipped
round, and | twice saw it give a
vicious dig at him with it's head and
then kneel down two or three times
when | could only see its stern above
the grass. By the time I got close up
the buffalo was in a kneeling position;
and thinking the man was probably
dead, I raised my rife to fire, when
Il6 man MuOn L COu1u ICG SSS III TIC
longish grass, raised his head and
shoulders from underneath the beasts
stomach directly in the line of fire,
obliging me to divert the muzzle until
he wriggled himself out of line, when
couple of bullets at close quarters
settled this cunning savage, yet plucl1y
beast. The mans back and the calves Of
his legs were covered with blood from
the buffalo's mouth and nostrils dur
ing Lne run, showing how very close
it had been to him ali the time. He
told me afterwards that when he fell
he turned over on his back, and the
buffalo made a bad shot each time
it lunged at him with its head, or
tried to kneeI on him, owing perhaps
to the fact that it was weak and dazed
from the loss of blood and he was
therefore able to twist himself out of
the way.
On cutting I'D the beast, I found