122 GAME. 



desperation of despair, plunging against or between 

 locomotive and cars, just as its blind madness chanced 

 to direct it. Numbers were killed, but numbers still 

 pressed on, to stop and stare as soon as the obstacle had 

 passed. After having trains thrown off the track twice 

 in one week, conductors learned to have a very decided 

 respect for the idiosyncrasies of the buffalo, and when 

 there was a possibility of striking a herd ' on the rampage ' 

 for the north side of the track, the train was slowed up 

 and sometimes stopped entirely. 



Late in the summer of 1867 a herd of probably 

 4,000 buffalo attempted to cross the South Platte, 

 near Plum Creek. The water was rapidly subsiding, 

 being nowhere over a foot or two in depth, and the 

 channels in the bed were filled or filling with loose quick- 

 sands. The buffalo in front were soon hopelessly stuck. 

 Those immediately behind, urged on by the horns and 

 pressure of those yet farther in rear, trampled over their 

 struggling companions, to be themselves engulfed in the 

 devouring sand. This was continued until the bed of the 

 river, nearly half-a-mile broad, was covered with dead or 

 dying buffalo. Only a comparatively few actually crossed 

 the river, and these were soon driven back by hunters. 

 It was estimated that considerably over half the herd, or 

 more than 2,000 buffalo, paid for this attempt with 

 their lives. 



When travelling unmolested the buffalo is extremely 

 careful in his choice of grades by which to pass from one 

 creek to another ; so much so indeed that, though a well- 

 defined buffalo trail may not be a good waggon road, one 

 may rest well assured that it is the best route to be had. 

 He seems to have a natural antipathy to the exertion of 

 going up or down steep places. In crossing streams his 

 instinct deserts him. He plunges in anywhere, without 

 fear or care, and shows less sense in extricating himself 

 from the difficulties incident to such action than any other 

 animal, wild or tame. 



