“Whar’d you sight yourn, Greeny?”
“Just back the horns, and I hit him too. If he hasn’t dropped before this, I’ll bet he’ll have the headache for a week.”
“B’ars and beavers, you! Them bufflers didn’t mind your shots more nor a couple of hailstones. Do you see whar I picked mine?” asked the trapper, pulling the buffalo’s fore-leg forward, and disclosing the track of the bullet behind it.
“Isn’t a shot in the head fatal?” I asked in astonishment.
“You might hit ’em thar with a cannon-ball, and they’d git up and run agin, and ef you’d pepper ’em all day whar you did yourn, you’d pick the bullets out thar ha’r and they wouldn’t mind it.”
This I afterward found to be true. No shot, however well aimed, can reach the seat of life in the buffalo through the head, unless it enter the eye, fair front.[1]
The trapper’s buffalo was thrown forward upon his face, his legs bent beneath him, and dressed after the usual fashion. He was in good condition, and we had a rich feast upon his carcass. The trapper selected a few choice portions from the inside, relished only by himself, and cutting several huge pieces for future use, the rest was left for the beasts of prey.
We proceeded but a few miles further, and encamped upon the banks of the Dry Fork. This is a small stream, a few miles south of the Black Hills. There was but a foot or two of sluggish water, and in the hot season it was often perfectly dry. Here for the first time I was made aware of the changeable character of the climate in this latitude. The weather, thus far, had been remarkably clear and fine, and at noon we found the weather sometimes oppressively warm. Toward night the wind veered around to the northwest, and grew colder. At nightfall, when we kindled our fire, the air was so chilly and cutting that Nat and I were in a shiver. Had it not been for our blankets we should have suffered considerably, though Biddon did not call his into requisition. There were a number of cottonwood trees near at hand, which served partly to screen us from the blast.
After our evening meal had been cooked, Biddon remarked: