40 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



erly called the buffalo. The proper buffalo is a distinct species, 

 peculiar to the warmer climates of the Eastern Continent. The 

 bison is a wild animal, with short, black, round horns, with great 

 intervals between their bases. On the shoulders is a large hunch, con- 

 sisting of a fleshy substance. The head and hunch are covered with 

 a long undulated fleece, of a rust-color, divided into locks. In win- 

 ter, the whole body is covered in this manner ; but, in summer, the 

 hind part of the body is naked, and wrinkled. The tail is about a foot 

 long, naked except a tuft of hairs at the end. The fore parts of the 

 body are very thick and strong ; The hind parts slender and weak. 

 These animals inhabit the interior parts of North America, and some 

 of the mountainous parts of Europe and Asia. 



BISON. jtf-JN 



BISSEXTILE. Every fourth year is called bissextile, or leap- 

 year, in which a day is added to the month of February, on account of 

 the excess of six hours, which the civil year contains, above 365 days. 

 This excess is eleven minutes and three seconds too much ; that is, it 

 exceeds the real year, or annual revolution of the earth. Hence, at the 

 end of every century divisible by four, it is necessary to retain the bis- 

 sextile day, and to suppress it at the end of those centuries which are not 

 divisible by four. Thus 1600 and 2000 are leap-years; but 1700, 

 1800, and 1900, are common years of 365 days. With this mode of 

 computation it will require a period of nearly 5000 years in order to 

 produce a difference of a single day between the civil and the tropical 

 year. 



BITUMENS. Oily matters, of a strong acrid smell, and of differ- 

 ent consistencies. Bitumens are combustible, solid, soft, or fluid sub- 

 stances, whose smell is strong, acrid or aromatic. They are found 

 either in the internal part of the earth, or exuding through the clefts of 

 rocks, or floating on the surface of waters. Like oils, they burn with a 



