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70 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
lost from the herd, to follow one whenever opportunity for it offers. In this 
way buffalo calves have frequently been known to follow a horse and its 
rider into the nearest military or trading post, miles from the herd. Catlin 
speaks of several that he sent down the Missouri by steamers to friends in 
St. Louis, which had unwittingly in this way made themselves prisoners. 
It may here be added, however, that the stupidity of the buffalo, as well 
as its sagacity, has been by some writers greatly overstated. A herd of buf- 
faloes certainly possesses, in an eminent degree, the sheep-like propensity of 
blindly following its leaders, whenever a large affrighted herd is fleeing from 
some real or fancied danger. It certainly seems a stupid thing for a whole 
herd to rush into destruction instead of turning aside and avoiding the : 
danger. A little reflection, however, will show that in such instances as the 
rushing of a herd over a precipice, or into a pound prepared especially to en- 
trap them, the act is not wholly one of stupidity, but comparable to that of a 
panic-stricken crowd of human beings rushing pell-mell from a public build- 
ing when an alarm of fire is given, at the cost of limbs and lives, when more 
deliberate action would avoid such accidents. In the case of the buffalo, the 
individuals in the front ranks of a herd, rushing to the verge of a precipice or ~ 
into a pound, discover the danger too late to be able to turn aside if they 
would, owing to the irresistible pressure of the mass behind, who are not in 
position to be aware of the danger towards which they are moving. Their 
crowding together on weak ice may result in disasters they can be hardly 
expected to foresee. Their crowding forward into quicksands is presumably 
the blind action of more or less excited herds, —a rashness a single animal 
or a few together would avoid. 
Many other details respecting the habits of the buffalo might be appro- 
priately added to the present account, especially in relation to their behavior 
in captivity, and when pursued or attacked by their human foes; but as most 
of these points will be noticed quite fully incidentally in subsequent portions 
of this memoir, it is perhaps unnecessary to refer to them further in the 
present connection. 
