Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1892 — Charged by a Buffalo. [ARTICLE]

Charged by a Buffalo.

Every farmer’s boy has seen two angry rams rush at each other, with heads almost down to the ground. It is thus that a mad African buffalo charges upon the object of his rage, be it man or lion. Such a charge is described by Mr. Herbert Ward, in Scribner’s Magazine. While his comrade, Mr. E. J. Glave, was stalking a large herd of buffaloes, he flred at a bull, but only wounded it in the shoulder. The herd stampeded, but the wounded bull trotted into a neighboring patch of scrub, whence, as Glave approached, he rushed into the open, and for an instant stood there dazed. Recovering himself, the infuriated animal extended his neck, stuck back his ears, staifped with his foot, sniffed the air, and with an ominous twitch of his tail, charged straight for the man, who stood awaiting him, fifty yards off. Glave saw from the pace of the charging buffalo that his life depended upon the one shot. He waited, therefore, until the brqte, with head close to the ground, and bellowing with rage, was within a few feet. Then he flred, and shot it through the heart. So sudden was the shock and so great the impulse, that the brute turned a somersault, and Glave had only time to jump aside to avoid being crushed. While stalking the herd,, Glave had given a native his helmed to carry. When the man saw the infuriated buffalo about to charge, he climbed up a high tree. So scared was he that even after the bhffalo had been killed he could not be persuaded to come down with the helmet, and another native had to go up and get it. The exposure of the hunter’s head to the sun gave him a severe fever, and that night he was so delirious as to require several men to control him.