Year: 1873

Appearances indicated that this shag-
gy old fellow had been making a very
good fight of it for several days. I dare
say that in the maintenance of his social
status he had gone back into the herd
and stared at his descendants, and
paved and groaned, as much as fifty
times. The long hair upon his huge
neck was tangled and pulled until tufts
of it hung loose and unkempt. The
outer fbres of his huge black horns
hung in flaments and spinters. His
wicked little eyes had a reddish glare,
and his beard was limp and froth-wet
beneath his chin. Nor was this all.
Sundry long, oblique, hairless lines ap-
peared on his flank, and he put his left
forefoot down tenderly, very likely re-
iounce he had got yesterday in the
shoulder, from some strong -necked
youngster that had taken it upon him
self to whip his father.


He stood little upon the outskirts
now, his head towards me, pretending
to eat grass. It was as nice herbage as
bull, whose teeth were probably none
of the very best, could wish-the first
tender growth of the early spring. But
still he did not seem to enjoy it. At
intervals of a minute or so he would
look round quickly over his shoulder
and groan, and stand thinking, and then
pretend to eat again. To this distress
full pantomime the ten thousand shaggy
grazers paid not the least attention.
They were busy. L could hear them
cropping the grass, as I lay there,
with a continuous rasping sound. 1t
was only too evident that of all those
COWS whom he had so often combed into
curliness with his long tongue of sunny
mornings, and led and herded and
fought for of all the little, stupid,
hump-backed, stump-tailed calves, his
own offspring, there was not one who
did not wish him disposed of according
to buffalo destiny, or who cared how
soon his last fight with the coyotes was
over, and his monumental skull left
standing upon its jagged base on the
bleak hilltop, with scarce so much as
thigh-bone or tuft of brown hair by
way of obituary.


But this old one was still buffalo
and bull, and he kept sureptitiously
getting nearer and nearer to the ragged
border of the herd.


Presently a calf came towards him
slowly and in an investigatory sort of
way, its little black nose wet and wrin-
kled, it's little brown fianks distended
with fullness, and the white milk-froth
depending in long threads from its
mouth. Gradually and slowly he went
up to his father, and the two had just
touched noses amicably, when the
mother also took it into her head to be
friendly, and came too. Then came
another COW, and another, and presently
quite a little wing of the herd had
gathered there, and the battered old
warrior looked around him compla-
Gently. This kind of thing had doubt
less happened so often that wonder he
did not seem to think of the result, but
he did not. He might have known that
he had arrived at that age when the
young bloods of the herd would not
look compIacently upon his hoary gal
lantries. He was simply laying the
plans for another fight, and the trouble
began in the very midst of his content.


A fellow as big as the old one must
have seen this social gathering from
some distance, and threw out certain in
timations of his approach by little puffs
of dust which flew high in the air above
the crowd, and by ominous snortings
and lugubrious groans. The old one
stopped chewing with a green mouthful
between his lips, and listened. The
cows looked round with the complacent
expression which seemed to say, that
the fight was none of theirs, and
crowded off upon either side, and very
soon the antagonists stood facing each
other. The old boy Strengthened out
his wisp of tail to line with his back,
gathered his four black hoofs together,
arched his spine, and placed his nose
close to the sod, shaking his huge head
as though he wished to satisfy himself
finally of its freedom from any entangle-
ment which would hinder him from Just
tossing that ambitious youngster over
his back and breaking him in two. The
other came slowly, twisting his tail from
side to side in semicircles which were
very deliberate and grand for so small
an organ. He took pains to make it dis
tinctly appear that every hair he wore
was angry. His eyes rolled in con-
stantly increasing redRess. His black,
sharp horns were encrusted with earth
gathered while he had been tearing the
sod in the ecstasy of valor. His nostriis
we're distended, and he halted in his
slow advance to toss the broken sod
high over his shoulders with his paw
ing. He was, in a natural way, tacti-
clan. He made flank movements, and
turned his shaggy sides, first one and
then the other, towards his huge an
! tagonist.


But this by-play Of battle only him
dered the final Onset-they by no means
intended TO take it ont in vapOring. The
challenger advanced within some fouI
feet, getting angrier and angrier as he
came. Suddenly there was a crash
which had in it something Homeric.
One rattling onset of that kind leaves
one in no doubt as to Why the short


strong horns of the buffaloes have q
| splintered appearance at the apices.


Then there was long, steady push, il


which every tendon of the huge bodies


was strained to the uttermost. Ther


there way strategic easing Of, then 4


sudden, gladiatOrial thrust, which


pressed the huge heads to the GROUND


in an even balance Of strength


Neither beast dared relax muscle o.


retreat an inch, for fear Of that fata


charge upon the flank. or that danger


ous twist Of the neck, which means de


feat.