136 The Bison 



flies, but also in part — as I believe — from sheer 

 love of climbing. 



Like most other herbivorous animals, the 

 buffalo was subject to panics, and was easily 

 stampeded, and when thoroughly frightened, a 

 herd ran for a long way before stopping. When 

 alarmed, they huddled together as closely as pos- 

 sible, running in a dense mass. The result of 

 this was that only the animals on the outskirts 

 of the herd could see where they were going ; 

 those in the centre blindly followed their leaders 

 and depended on them. This very fact was a 

 source of danger, for the leaders, crowded upon 

 by those that followed, even if they saw peril 

 in front of them, could not stop, and often could 

 not even turn aside, but were constantly forced 

 on to a danger that they would gladly have 

 avoided. This is the entirely simple explanation 

 of a characteristic often wondered at by writers 

 about this species ; that is, their habit of running 

 headlong into danger, — plunging over cut banks 

 into the pens prepared for them by the Indians, 

 or rushing into quicksands or places where they 

 mired down, or into deep water, which might 

 have well been avoided, or even up against such 

 obstacles as a train of cars or a steamboat in the 



