30 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



these inhospitable localities lo facing the dangers that 

 always are connected with a rencontre with the pale-face. 

 Although the buffalo can endure a great amount of cold, 

 and find food even after a thick covering of snow lays upon 

 the earth, yet he is not provided like the musk sheep for 

 an Arctic winter, and from his greater bulk requires so 

 much sustenance, that a protracted sojourn in the northern 

 barrens must ultimately have the result of reducing his 

 strength, and therefore his fitness to cope with the severity 

 of the climate. Again, he has other enemies as well as 

 man. The wolves seldom leave him alone. Day and 

 night they bestow upon him the most devoted attention. 

 However, as long as he is in good health he has little to 

 fear from the marauder ; but the moment that accident, 

 sickness, or loss of strength from starvation occurs, the 

 buffalo's unhappy position is known, and half-a-dozen of 

 these robbers will remain night and day, watching for an 

 opportunity to complete the wreek ; and should this not 

 occur as soon as desirable, not unfrequently they will make 

 a simultaneous assault, one pretending to fly at the victim's 

 head, 'while another attacks in the rear, using every artifice 

 to cut the buffalo's hamstring, in which they invariably 

 succeed, unless the presence of man should disturb them. 



On one occasion, while hunting, I obtained an excellent 

 opportunity of witnessing one of these encounters. At the 

 distance of half a mile I perceived an old bull going 

 through a variety of eccentric movements, which were at 

 the moment perfectly incomprehensible. To know what 

 might be the cause, as well as perhaps to learn something 

 new regarding this race, I left my horse and made a most 



