The Bison 161 



the leader chooses the roughest and most difficult 

 ground over which he can pass, and the follower 

 is obliged to take the same route. But buffalo- 

 hunting is now a sport of the distant past, and it 

 is needless to speak of it at any length. 



In the days of its abundance the buffalo was a 

 most impressive species, and their enormous num- 

 bers have been a theme on which many writers 

 have delighted to linger. Adjectives have failed 

 them to describe the multitudes of buffalo seen, 

 and it was not unusual for men to travel long 

 distances among great herds, which made slow 

 way for them as they passed along. Many cal- 

 culations have been made of the numbers of 

 buffalo seen at one time; but, after all, these 

 can be little more than guesswork. Terms like 

 thousands and millions, so commonly used, have 

 little or no meaning, for we have no standard of 

 comparison by which to measure them. All the 

 earlier writers, however graphic their descriptions 

 of their numbers, fail to impress the reader, be- 

 cause no one could comprehend such numbers 

 except by seeing them. Dr. Allen, Mr. Horna- 

 day, Colonel Dodge, and many of the old explor- 

 ers, give much matter bearing on this subject. 

 A few lines from the Journal of Alexander Henry 



