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266 BULLETIN NO. VII. 
he throws himself flat on his side, and then forcing himself 
violently around with his horns, his feet, and huge hump, 
plows up the ground still more, thus enlarging the pool till he 
at length becomes nearly immersed. Besmeared with a coat- 
ing of the pasty mixture, he at length rises, changed into a 
‘monster of mud and ugliness.’ with the black mud dripping 
from his shaggy mane and thick woolly coat. The mud soon 
drying upon his body insures him hours of immunity from the 
attack of insects. Others follow in succession, having waited © 
their turns to enjoy the luxury; each rolls and wallows ina 
similar way, adding a little to the dimensions of the hole, and 
-earrying away a share of the adhesive mud. By this means 
an excavation is eventually made having a diameter of fifteen 
or twenty feet, and two feet in depth.” Similar excavations 
are made upon the dry prairie and receive the same name. 
However formed, these cavities serve a useful purpose as reser- 
voirs of rain water for man and beast, and in not a few cases 
during the exciting Indian wars such wallows have formed 
natural rifle pits in which a small band has been able to resist 
the onslaught of a much superior force of savages. The wal- 
lows may be detected from a distance by the greener and 
ranker grass of the margin. 
Rutting takes place in July and August and one, or at most 
two calves are dropped in March to June. The young consort 
with the cows and younger bulls, but do not form separate 
herds. Conflicts plentifully intermixed with sonorous bellowing 
are frequent but so short are the horns and so tough and shaggy 
the head that serious results are rare. Even when enraged 
the buffalo is rarely the formidable and pertinacious foe repre- 
sented in penny books of adventure. 
The buffalo is easily tamed and the cross with the domestic 
cattle is fertile. Great diversity of opinion prevails as to their 
availability for domestic purposes. Some suppose that great 
improvement in domestic breeds of cattle could be secured 
by crossing with the wild relatives but the preponderance of 
evidence seems rather to negative the assertion. 
The attempt was made at one time in Virginia but the results 
were unfavorable. It would seem that a race of draught oxen 
might be reared from this stock but no persistent experiments 
have been made. Sibley speaks of a man who in the Red river 
valley had broken a bull to the plow and performed the whole 
labor of the field with him alone. 
