the centre of a wide plain, so I knew that the buffalo could not have
passed out without my seeing him, and my gun-bearers having come up, I
made them pelt the rushes with dried clods of earth. It was of no use:
he would not break cover; so I determined to ride in and hunt him up.
The grass was so thick and entangled with the rushes that my horse could
with difficulty force his way through it; and when within the dense mass
of vegetation it towered high above my head, and was so thick that I
could not see a yard to my right or left. I beat about to no purpose for
about twenty minutes, and I was on the point of giving it up, when I
suddenly saw the tall reeds bow down just before me. I heard the rush of
an animal as he burst through, and I just saw the broad black nose,
quickly followed by the head and horns, as the buffalo charged into me.
The horse reared to his full height as the horns almost touched his
chest, and I fired as well as I was able. In another instant I was
rolling on the ground, with my horse upon me, in a cloud of smoke and
confusion.

In a most unsportsmanlike manner (as persons may exclaim who were not
there) I hid behind my horse, as he regained his legs. All was
still--the snorting of the frightened horse was all that I could hear. I
expected to have seen the infuriated buffalo among us. I peeped over the
horse's back, and, to my delight and surprise, I saw the carcass of the
bull lying within three feet of him. His head was pierced by the ball
exactly between the horns, and death had been instantaneous. The horse,
having reared to his full height, had entangled his hind legs in the
grass, and he had fallen backwards without being touched by the buffalo,
although the horns were close into him.

I was rather pleased at being so well out of this scrape, and I made up
my mind never again to follow buffaloes into high grass. Turning towards