The Bison 149 



establishing a race of buffalo cattle has past. 

 The buffalo are extinct, and the number of ani- 

 mals in captivity to be drawn on, very small. 

 Nevertheless, the great preponderance of bulls 

 among these domesticated buffalo, makes it pos- 

 sible that something in this direction might be 

 done, though the chances now are much against it. 



The buffalo has often been broken to the yoke. 

 Robert Wycliff says of this animal, " He walks 

 more actively, and I think has more strength 

 than an ox of the same weight. I have broken 

 them to the yoke and found them capable of 

 making excellent oxen ; and for drawing wagons, 

 carts, or other heavily laden vehicles on long 

 journeys, they would, I think, be greatly prefer- 

 able to the common ox." Under the yoke, how- 

 ever, they are said to be somewhat difficult to 

 control, and cases are cited where broken buffalo 

 have, for various causes, run away, to the great 

 detriment of the load they were hauling. In the 

 year 1874 a settler on Trail Creek, in Montana, 

 told me that he had a pair of bulls broken to the 

 yoke, and declared that they would haul more 

 than " any two yoke of cattle on the place." 



There is another reason besides the lack of 

 buffalo for thinking that no systematic attempt 



