In Buffalo Days 
sive, and dull. In its ways of life and intel- 
ligence it closely resembled our domestic 
cattle. It was slow to learn by experience, 
and this lack of intelligence greatly hastened 
the destruction of the race. Until the very 
last years of its existence as a species, it did 
not appear to connect the report of firearms 
with any idea of danger to itself, and though 
constantly pursued, did not become wild. If 
he used skill and judgment in shooting, a 
hunter who had “got a stand” on a small 
bunch could kill them all before they had 
moved out of rifle-shot. It was my fortune, 
one summer, to hunt for a camp of soldiers, 
and more than once I have lain on a hill 
above a little herd of buffalo, shot down what 
young bulls I needed to supply the camp, 
and then walked down to the bunch and, by 
waving my hat and shouting, driven off the 
survivors, so that I could prepare the meat 
for transportation to camp. This slowness 
to take the alarm, or indeed to realize the 
presence of danger, was characteristic of the 
buffalo almost up to the very last. A time 
did come when they were alarmed readily 
enough, but this was not until all the large 
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