Buffalo 289 



blind with rage that they fought on, utterly regardless of our 

 presence, although on foot and on horseback we were firing in 

 open view within twenty yards of them. But this did not last 

 long. In a very few seconds we created a commotion among 

 them. One or two, which were knocked over by the balls 

 jumped up, ran off into the hills; and they began to retreat 

 slowly along a broad ravine to the river, fighting furiously 

 as they went. By the time they had reached the bottom 

 we had pretty well dispersed them, and the old bull hobbled 

 off to he down somewhere." 



The question arises. Who was that old bull ? I suspect 

 that he was the great-grandfather of many of those who were 

 ill-treatmg him, and further, that he ill-treated his own great- 

 grandfather in precisely the same way. 



T. ^T^^'^'^ """ Antelope Island, in Salt Lake, a herd of politics 

 Buffalo which numbered 28 in 1905. Friends in Salt Lake 

 City have given me an idea of what has been going on in that 

 herd, ever since they were turned loose and left free to resume 

 their tribal life, a dozen years ago. The strongest bull takes 

 possession of all the best things-the wallow, the choice food 

 the shady spot in summer, the sheltered nook in winter, and the 

 majority of the cows. He would take all, if he had the wit, and 

 the cows accepted his view of the matter. The lesser 

 bulls keep out of his way and take what they can get of his 

 leavings. From time to time, some growing lusty young 

 fellow tries a bout with the ''boss" and usually gets the worst 

 of It But a time comes, soon or late, when the "boss 

 IS licked." He is driven out of the herd and far away from 

 It, forbidden to return at the peril of his life, and the new 

 king reigns in his stead, to tyrannize over the cows and 

 the lesser bulls as he did before. The reign of each "boss" 

 IS usually two or three years. I have no doubt that this 

 explains the clan-life of the Buffalo. It is a well-known fact 

 that any solitary Buffalo seen on the plains was always an 

 outcast old bull— doubtless one that had been originally 



