ON THE PRAIRIE 117 



jority of the individuals were utterly unable 

 to accommodate themselves to the sudden 

 and complete change in the surrounding 

 forces with which they had to cope, and 

 therefore died out ; while a very few of the 

 more active and wary, and of those most 

 given to wandering off into mountainous 

 and out-of-the-way places, in each genera- 

 tion survived, and among these the wariness 

 continually increased, partly by personal ex- 

 perience, and still more by inheriting an in- 

 creasingly suspicious nature from their an- 

 cestors. The sense of smell always was ex- 

 cellent in the buffalo; the sense of hearing 

 becomes much quicker in any woods animal 

 than it is in one found on the plains ; while 

 in beasts of the forest the eyesight does not 

 have to be as keen as is necessary for their 

 protection in open country. On the moun- 

 tains the hair grows longer and denser, and 

 the form rather more thickset. As a result, 

 a new race has been built up ; and we have 

 an animal far better fitted to " harmonize 

 with the environment/' to use the scientific 



