We had hardly gone five miles beyond the ruined station house--which we passed at a trot, so that none might know what had happened there--when we saw our advance men pull up and raise their hands.

We caught it also--the sound of approaching hoofs, and all joined in the cry, "Buffalo! Buffalo!" In an instant every horseman was pressing forward.
The thunderous rolling sound approached, heavy as that of artillery going into action.

We saw dust arise from the mouth of a little draw on the left, running down toward the valley, and even as we turned there came rolling from its mouth, with the noise of a tornado and the might of a mountain torrent, a vast, confused, dark mass, which rapidly spilled out across the valley ahead of us.

Half hid in the dust of their going, we could see great dark bulks rolling and tossing.

Thus it was, and close at hand, that I saw for the first time in my life these huge creatures whose mission seemed to have been to support an uncivilized people, and to make possible the holding by another race of those lands late held as savage harvest grounds.
We were almost at the flanks of the herd before they reached the river bank.