The Bison or American Buffalo 25 



still threshing across the river. Toward dawn 

 the sound at last ceased, and General Walker 

 arose somewhat irritated, as he had reckoned 

 on killing an ample supply of meat, and he 

 supposed that there would be now no bison 

 left south of the river. To his astonishment, 

 when he strolled up on the bluffs and looked 

 over the plain, it was still covered far and 

 wide with groups of buffalo, grazing quietly. 

 Apparently there were as many on that side 

 as ever, in spite of the many scores of thou- 

 sands that must have crossed over the river 

 during the stampede of the afternoon and 

 night. The barren-ground caribou is the only 

 American animal which is now ever seen in 

 such enormous herds. 



In 1862 Mr. Clarence King, while riding 

 along the overland trail through western Kan- 

 sas, passed through a great buffalo herd, and 

 was himself injured in an encounter with a 

 bull. The great herd was then passing north, 

 and Mr. King reckoned that it must have cov- 

 ered an area nearly seventy miles by thirty in 

 extent; the figures representing his rough 

 guess, made after traveling through the herd 

 crosswise, and upon knowing how long it took 

 to pass a given point going northward. This 

 great herd of course was not a solid mass of 



VOL. III. 2 



