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CHAPTER VIII. 



BUFFALO. 



Bos Americanos (American Bison.) 



I SUPPOSE I ought to call this animal the ' bison ;' but, 

 though naturalists may insist that ' bison ' is his true 

 name, I, as a plainsman, also insist that his name is 

 buffalo. 



As buffalo he is known everywhere, not only on the 

 plains but throughout the sporting world ; as buffalo ' he 

 lives and moves and has his being ; ' as buffalo he will die ; 

 and when, as must soon happen, his race has vanished 

 from earth, as buffalo he will live in tradition and story. 



The general appearance of this animal is well known to 

 all. His enormous bulk, shaggy mane, vicious eye, and 

 sullen demeanour give him an appearance of ferocity 

 very foreign to his true nature. Dangerous as he looks, 

 he is in truth a very mild, inoffensive beast, timid and 

 fearful, and rarely attacking but in the last hopeless effort 

 of self-defence. 



The domestic cattle of Texas, miscalled tame, are fifty 

 times more dangerous to footmen than the fiercest buffalo. 

 He is the most unwieldy, sluggish, and stupid of all plains 

 animals. Endowed with the smallest possible amount of 

 instinct, the little he has seems adapted rather for getting 

 him into difficulties than out of them. 



If not alarmed at sight or smell of a foe, he will stand 

 stupidly gazing at his companions in their death throes 

 until the whole herd is shot down. He will walk 



