THE BUFFALO. 199 



have known them to follow horsemen out of a herd after 

 a short run, and trot behind them for several miles with- 

 out making an effort to escape. 



Thousands of them are captured alive annually by being 

 run down with horses, but the greater number die, owing 

 to the severe manner in which they were chased, or else to 

 their grief at being separated from their kindred and the 

 nutritious grasses and freedom of the plains. I have seen 

 a troop of cavalry lasso one hundred of them in two days, 

 and bring them to the barracks; and although they had 

 plenty of room in a corral to run about, and an abundance 

 of hay and grass, few of them lived more than a week. 

 The same mortality was noticeable among those captured 

 by expert lassoers and regular hunters; so it is evident 

 that they cannot stand much hardship. 



The calves can be domesticated readily, if treated kind- 

 ly; and when the bulls reach adult age they are said to be 

 as good as oxen for ploughing, but they have the great 

 fault of being stubborn ; and when once they take it into 

 their heads to go in a certain direction, nothing can pre- 

 vent them except a wall or a bullet. One or two genera- 

 tions of domestication might break them of this habit, 

 however, and they could then be made into valuable beasts 

 of burden, while the cows would prove a valuable addition 

 to the farm-yard. My own opinion is that the buffalo can 

 be tamed easily, and vastly improved in physique, strength, 

 and edible qualities, by careful feeding; for, in a wild state, 

 its flesh is rather flavorless, and the stateliest bull cannot 

 compete in power or pugnacity with one of his domestic 

 congeners scarcely one-half his weight or age. The wild- 

 bull, that is, the domestic species, run wild, can defeat any 

 two buffaloes in ten minutes, and a herd of wild cattle 

 can drive twenty times their number of buffaloes in a very 

 short time. 



From experiments made in New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, 

 and other portions of the United States, it has been found 

 that the buffalo can be domesticated without much trouble, 

 that its flesh can be greatly improved, and that the milk 



