THE YELLOWSTONE PARK 7 



set heavy beast, wonderfully quick and active for 

 his size, but not adapted for speed. This at first 

 was not necessary ; but with the advent of hunters 

 mounted on fast horses the case altered and the 

 bison of which I am speaking were longer in the 

 leg and slighter in the body, so that they could run 

 faster and thus escape the danger which threatened 

 them. There is a big bull bison on Buffalo Island 

 in Lake Yellowstone, supposed to be the largest 

 in existence, for whom when dead his owner told 

 me he had been offered $1600 (320). He is a savage 

 old beast and killed four cows before his evil deeds 

 were discovered. He now lives alone in solitary 

 grandeur, whilst the heads of his victims are exposed 

 for sale in a local store at $300 apiece. Later on, 

 when hunting antelope on the plains, I saw hundreds 

 of shallow depressions in the ground ; sometimes 

 a few isolated ones, sometimes dozens close together. 

 Here they were but a few inches in depth ; there 

 as much as a foot. At first I could not imagine what 

 they were. Then it dawned on me. They were 

 the old buffalo wallows rubbed bare generations ago 

 when their makers wanted a dust bath. How has 

 their glory departed ! 



By far the most amusing animals in the Park are 

 the bears. They frequent the garbage heaps of nearly 

 every hotel, and one evening at the Grand Canyon 

 there were twenty-three silver tips enjoying their 

 dinner at once. I went up as soon as I heard of 

 their party, but by the time I reached the scene of 



