I 
THE AMERICAN BISONS. as 
greater. When well under way, and with a good start, it takes a fleet horse 
to overtake them, their speed being much greater than one would suppose 
from simply watching their movements from a distance, their gait being a 
rather clumsy, lumbering gallop. When pursued, or when urged on by 
thirst, rough ground and a tumble now and then seem to scarcely retard 
their progress, they plunging headlong down the steep sides of ravines and 
resuming their course up the opposite slope as if they had found the ravine 
no obstacle to their progress. When thirsty, in order to get at streams or 
springs, they will often leap down vertical banks where it would be impos- 
sible to urge a horse, and will even descend precipitous rocky bluffs by paths 
where a man could only climb down with difficulty, and where it would 
seem almost impossible for a beast of their size and structure to pass except at 
the cost of broken limbs or a broken neck. On the bluffs of the Musselshell 
River I found places where they had leaped down bare ledges three or four feet 
in height with nothing but ledges of rocks for a landing-place ; sometimes, 
too, through passages between high rocks but little wider than the thickness 
of their own bodies, with also a continuous precipitous descent for many feet 
below. Nothing in their history ever surprised me more than this revelation 
of their expertness and fearlessness in climbing.* Ordinarily, however, the 
buffalo shows commendable sagacity in respect to his choice of routes, usu- 
ally choosing the easiest grades and the most direct courses, so that a buffalo 
trail can be depended upon as affording the most feasible road possible 
through the region it traverses. 
When moving in large bands across the plains dee. course is often plainly 
marked by the column of dust they raise, even when the animals themselves 
are far beyond sight, the scene calling to mind the passage of a distant troop 
of cavalry at full speed, or a heavy train of army wagons. The presence of 
a herd to the windward of the observer, even if a mile or two distant, can 
usually be detected by the peculiar odor that arises from it, especially dur- 
ing the rutting season. At this time, too, the roaring of the bulls can often 
be heard when the animals are miles away, and hidden, perchance, by inter- 
vening swells of the prairie, particularly at night, or when the air is still. 
Few things make a more vivid or lasting impression —and one that at the 
time is often far from agreeable — upon the mind of the traveller, encamped 
far out on the open prairie, than the roar and tramp of an approaching herd 
of buffaloes, especially at night-time. Nothing, again, is more pleasantly 
* On this point see further Dr. Coues’s communication given in Part II. 
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