42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



against rocks and trees, or rolling on the ground. Their coats are in 

 prime condition for robes in December. 



The buffalo is nomadic in its habits, roaming in the course of the 

 year over vast areas in search of food or safety. The fires that annually 

 sweep across thousands of square miles of the grassy plains, the ravages 

 of grasshoppers, often destroying equally extensive tracts of vegetation, 

 and the habit of keeping in compact herds, which soon exhaust the 

 herbage of a single region, all compel constant movement. There is a 

 popular belief that the buffaloes used to migrate from the northern 

 plains to Texas in fall and back again in spring, but this seems erro- 

 neous. Before the intersection of the West by railroads and emigrant 

 trails their movements were more regular, no doubt, than at present, 

 and slight northward and southward migrations are well attested as 

 occurring in Texas and also on the Saskatchewan plains ; but the herds 

 constantly winter as far north as the latter region, and for twenty-five 

 years have not passed southward even to the Platte. In the extreme 

 north they leave the exposed plains in winter and take shelter among 

 the wooded hills. Such local movements as these were formerly very 

 regular, and hunters knew just where to look for their game at any 

 season of the year. 



The behavior of the buffaloes is very much like that of domestic 

 cattle, but their speed and endurance seem to be far greater. When 

 well under way it takes a fleet horse to overtake them, and they raise 

 a column of dust which marks their progress when miles away. They 

 swim rivers with ease, even amid floating ice, and show a surprising 

 agility and expertness in making their way down precipitous cliffs and 

 banks of streams, plunging headlong where a man would pick his way 

 with hesitation. Ordinarily, however, the buffalo exhibits commend- 

 able sagacity in his choice of routes, usually taking the easiest grades 

 and the most direct course, so that a buffalo-trail often worn deep 

 into the ground can be depended on as affording the most feasible 

 road through the region it traverses. 



When belligerent, the old bulls make the most blustering demon- 

 strations, but are really cowardly. Facing the approaching hunter 

 with a boastful and defiant air, they will pace to and fro, threat- 

 eningly pawing the earth, only to take to their heels the next moment. 

 The bulls greatly enjoy pawing the earth and throwing it up with 

 their horns, digging into banks or getting down upon one knee to 

 strike into the level surface, so that the sheaths of their horns are al- 

 ways badly splintered. They are very fond, too, of rubbing them- 

 selves, and evidently regard the telegraph-poles along the railroads as 

 set there for their especial convenience in this respect. But their chief 

 delight is in " wallowing." Finding in the low parts of the prairie a 

 little stagnant water among the grass, or at least the surface soft and 

 moist, an old bull plunges his horns into the ground, tearing up the 

 earth and soon making an excavation into which the water trickles, 



