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62 



THE AMEPJCA^^ BISONS 



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westward the ground was almost wholly bare. I was informed, furthermore, 

 that this was the usual distribution of the snow in this region whenever any 

 fell there. Although occasionally the snow does not accumulate in sufficient 

 quantity to render grazing difficult over any of the country west of Fossil 

 Creek, the buffaloes regularly abandon this region in winter for the country 

 further west, where snow is of more exceptional occurrence. 



The wanderings of the buflfixloes often render it necessary for them to 

 cross large streams, which they seem to do with reckless fearlessness and at 

 almost any season of the year, though frequently at the cost of the lives of 



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many of the 



and feeble as well as of the young. Lewis and Clarke 



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speak of their crossing the Upper Missouri in such numbei^s as to delay their 

 boat, the river being filled with them as thick as they could swim for the 

 distance of a mile.* Other Western travellers mention similar scenes.f Bad 

 landing-places, such as bluffy banks or miry shores, often prove fatal to the 

 half-exhausted creature after reaching the shore-t In winter they boldly 

 cross the rivers oil the ice ; towards spring, however, after the ice has 

 become weakened by melting, and even occasionally at other times, in con- 

 sequence of their crowding too. thickly together, the ice breaks beneath their 



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weight and great numbers are drowned. In spring they often cross amid 

 the floating ice, at which times they are sometimes set upon by the Indians, 

 to whom they then fall an easy prey. According to Audubon, small herds 

 occasionally find themselves adrift oh masses of floating ice, where the ma- 

 jority perish from cold and lack of food rather than trust themselves to the 



icy, turbulent waters. 



The behavior and movements of the buffalo are in general very much like 

 se of domestic cattle, but their speed and endurance seem to be far 



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* Lewis and Clarke's Exped., Yol. II, p. 395. 



f Catlin, North Am. Indians, Yol. II, p. 13; Fremont, Explorations, etc., p 23. 



I The following incident in point is related by Colonel Dodge : " Late in the summer of 1867 a herd of 

 probably four thousand buffaloes attempted to cross the South Platte near Plum Creek. The river was rap- 

 idly subsiding, being nowjiere over a foot or two in depth, and the channels in, the bed were filled or filling 

 with loose quicksand. The buffaloes in front were hopelessly stuck. Those immediately behind, urged on 

 by the horns and pressure of those yet further in the rear, trampled over their struggling companions to be 

 themselves inf^-ulfed in the devourino; sand. This was continued until the bed of the river, nearly half a 

 mile broad, was covered with dead or dying bufl^iloes. Only a comparative few actually crossed the river, 

 and these were soon driven back by hunters. It was estimated that considerably more than half the herd, 



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or over two thousand buffaloes, paid for this attempt with their lives." — CJncago Inter-Ocean, August 5, 



1875. 



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Audubon and Bachman, Quad. N. Am., Yol. II, p. 38. 



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