of long dark hair, which waved in the breeze as they 

 marched along with a majestic stride befitting the grand- 

 est animal which ever trod the soil of the American 

 continent. They were the Corbin herd of bison, on their 

 way to their new home in the Blue Mountain Forest. 



With forty square miles of territory at their disposal, 

 it is doubtful if the buffaloes knew that they were in- 

 closed, and when occasionally they saw a fence, they 

 probably didn't know on which side of it they were 

 walking. So they roamed at will and in peace, drinking 

 from the trout brooks or the little lakes, creating 'Val- 

 lows" by rolling in the dirt, grazing through the old 

 pastures lately used for domestic cattle, and making 

 well-defined trails through the dense spruce forests from 

 one old farm to another. Then in December came the 

 deep snow, covering up all the pastures, and buffaloes 

 found difficulty in pawing through it to get at the dead 

 grass beneath. But they were not to be left to shift 

 for themselves. Down at ''Central Station," a twenty- 

 acre inclosure near the southern end of the preserve, cor- 

 rals had been built, and it was proposed to bring the buffa- 

 loes here and feed them on hay until the following spring. 

 As the buffaloes knew nothing of these preparations — 

 in fact were ignorant of the existence of "Central Sta- 

 tion" — it was necessary to show them the way to their 

 winter quarters. This was done by laying a trail of 

 hay for several miles over the mountain, and the hungrj^ 

 buffaloes followed it eagerly until it led them right into 

 the corrals. 



The herd thrived and increased until 1896, when 

 it numbered seventy-five head. Then it got the one 

 great setback of its entire history. Under an arrange- 

 ment with the city of New York, twenty-five head were 

 sent to Van Cortlandt Park, with the head keeper in 

 charge, but (owing to the bad water it is thought), they 

 became so diseased that they all either died or had to 

 be killed — one-third of this fine little band wiped out 

 at a single stroke. The remaining fifty head continued 

 to thrive and increase until 1905, when they numbered 

 about one hundred and seventy-five head. This was 



43 



