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THE AMEKICAN BISONS. 



67 



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or between locomotive and cars, just as the blind madness chanced to take 

 them. Numbers were killed, but numbers still pressed on to stop and stare 

 as soon as the obstacle was passed. After having trains ditched twice in 

 one weekj conductors learned to have a very decided respect for the idiosyn- 

 crasies of the buffalo, and when there was a possibility of striking a herd 



4 



•^on the rampage' for the north side of the track, the train w^as slowed up, 

 and sometimes stopped entirely."* 



The sluggish nature and in some respects intense 'stupidity of the br 

 hence tend greatly to place this animal wholly at the mercy of its enemies, 

 ief among^ whom is man, whether civilized or in the savage state. An ac- 



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count of the various devices for their destruction practised by man, and of 

 the results that have followed the reckless, exterminating slaughter he has 

 waged upon this inoffensive and helpless animal, being given in subsequent 

 portions of this memoir, it is unnecessary to refer at length to these matters 

 here. Let it suffice, then, in this connection, to say that their unwariness 



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renders them an easy prey to the hunter, who, by keeping to the leeward 

 of the herd, finds no difficulty in approaching these animals sufficiently near 

 for their easy . destruction, even when he is unmounted, while their pursuit 

 on horseback has ever been one of the favorite pastimes of the sportsman. 

 Fortunately for the buffaloes, they possess few other enemies, the wolves 

 being their only other formidable foe. These have now become so reduced 



* 



in numbers over most of the present range of the buffalo that they no longer 

 form a very serious check upon its increase. Formerly they everywhere 

 harassed the buffalo, destroying many of the young, and even worrying and 

 finally killing and devouring the aged, the feeble, and the wounded. Thirty 

 years since the wolves, next to the Indians, were the great scourge of the 

 buffaloes, and had no small degree of influence in effecting their decrease. 

 The earlier explorers of the plains often speak of finding a solitary buffalo, 

 disabled by accident or by age, surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves, who 

 would tease and wound him day and night till he finally fell a prey to their 

 ravenous appetites. Catlin and other writers have often referred to this mat- 

 ter at length, Catlin having also given a series of paintings of these encounters 

 between the bison and his hungry tormentors.f Says Cathn, in his graphic 

 account of one of these attacks, "During my travels in these regions [Upper 

 Missouri country], I have several times come across such a gang of these 



* 



Chicago Inter-Ocean^ August 5, 1875. 



f NorUi American Indians, Vol. I, p= 257, pis, cxiii, cxiv. 



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