The Lordly Buffalo. 247 



The incoming of the cattle-men was another cause of 

 the completeness of their destruction. Wherever there is 

 good feed for a buffalo, there is good feed for a steer or 

 cow ; and so the latter have penetrated into all the pas- 

 tures of the former ; and of course the cowboys follow. 

 A cowboy is not able to kill a deer or antelope unless in 

 exceptional cases, for they are too fleet, too shy, or keep 

 themselves too well hidden. But a buffalo neither tries 

 nor is able to do much in the way of hiding itself ; its 

 senses are too dull to give it warning in time ; and it is 

 not so swift as a horse, so that a cowboy, riding round in 

 the places where cattle, and therefore buffalo, are likely to 

 be, is pretty sure to see any of the latter that may be 

 about, and then can easily approach near enough to be 

 able to overtake them when they begin running. The 

 size and value of the animal makes the chase after it very 

 keen. Hunters will follow the trail of a band for days, 

 when they would not follow that of deer or antelope for a 

 half hour. 



Events have developed a race of this species, known 

 either as the wood or mountain buffalo, which is acquiring, 

 and has already largely acquired, habits widely different 

 from those of the others of its kind. It is found in the 

 wooded and most precipitous portions of the mountains, 

 instead of on the level and open plains ; it goes singly or 

 in small parties, instead of in huge herds ; and it is more 

 agile and infinitely more wary than is its prairie cousin. 

 The formation of this race is due solely to the extremely 

 severe process of natural selection that has been going on 

 among the buffalo herds for the last sixty or seventy years ; 



