258 DISLIKE OF THE BISON TO WHITE MEN. 



river, they swam and waded and ran with the 

 utmost violence, breaking, in several places, through 

 the line of march, which lay along* the left bank of 

 the Platte. 



It has been remarked by hunters, and the fact is 

 curious, that a white man is far more terrifying to 

 wild animals, the bison especially, than an Indian. 

 This creature comes in the course of his migrations 

 into the neighbourhood of the permanent Indian 

 villages on the Missouri and the Platte, about the 

 time when the inhabitants are absent on their 

 winter's hunt; and at the period of their return 

 large groups are found peacefully occupying the 

 surrounding pasture-grounds. But such is not the 

 case wherever the white man has fixed his abode; 

 from about his neighbourhood the bison uniformly 

 disappears in the course of a short time, and never 

 returns again. Truly the unoffending bison has 

 good reason for his dislike. White hunters fre- 

 quently attack large herds of these fine creatures, 

 and, having slaughtered as many as they are able, 

 leave the carcasses to be devoured by wolves and 

 birds of prey. This inconsiderate and cruel prac- 

 tice causes them to fly both far and soon from the 

 neighbourhood of our frontier settlements. 



Bisons are very numerous on the banks of the 

 ReoT River, on those open and undulating plains, 

 and in half-wooded valleys, where small elms are 

 seen bending beneath the weight of innumerable 

 grape-vines, of which the purple clusters crowd in 

 such profusion as to give a colouring to the landscape. 

 There Dr. James and his companions often heard, 

 with dismay, the continual roar of the immense herds 



