26 WILD BEASTS OF THE WOULD 



used to perish at times in boggy places, or in crossing rivers on thin 

 ice, as those behind would push on to destruction their unfortunate 

 predecessors. 



Like so many large animals, they like wallowing, and in default 

 of ponds or rivers, would make mud-holes in soft ground, which 

 hollows have remained as some of the signs of the animal's previous 

 occupation of land where they have long since vanished. 



For such heavy animals they are remarkably active ; and were of 

 course dangerous to hunters when hard pressed, though not nearly 

 as much so as the true Buffaloes of India and Africa. Their natural 

 enemies were chiefly the Wolves, which attacked calves and weakly 

 adults, and sometimes the Grizzly Bear. The Red Indians regularly 

 hunted them for the flesh and skin, and indeed chiefly subsisted on 

 them in many places ; but it is to white men that the almost 

 complete extermination of this fine animal is due. The completion 

 of the Union Pacific Railway in 1869 seems to have given the death- 

 blow to the Bison, splitting the great central herd of millions of 

 animals, which still remained after all the encroachments of civilisa- 

 tion, into two parts, of which both the northern and southern sections 

 had practically ceased to exist by 1890. The cause of the persecution 

 was chiefly the demand for the hides, or " robes," but the beasts were 

 actually shot down merely for their tongues in some cases. 



In various places in North America, and especially in British 

 territory, a few hundred Bison are still preserved, which, if carefully 

 guarded, ought to be sufficient to perpetuate the race, while they are 

 well represented in European Zoological Gardens, in which they breed 

 freely enough. In captivity Bison are formidable from their great 

 strength, and, though they have been trained to the yoke, and, by 

 this quality, are good draught animals, they are very difficult to control 

 if excited. Thus, if they are thirsty and come to water, it is impos- 

 sible to keep them from rushing headlong to it. As they have so 

 good a coat, and are very hardy, bearing the terrible blizzards of the 

 plains, and scraping away the snow to find food, they have been 

 crossed with domestic cattle to improve the latter in these respects. 

 These " Cataloes," as the hybrids are called, can only be bred from the 

 Bison bull and tame Cow, not vice versa, and, in spite of the great 

 distinctness of the parent stocks, they are fertile. 



