WESTERN WILD SPORTS. 155 



mals which live together. They have been seen in herds of 

 three, four, and five thousand, blackening the plains as far as 

 the eye could view. 



" Some travellers are of opinion that they have seen as many as 

 eight or ten thousand in a herd, but this is merely a conjecture. 

 At night it is impossible for a person to sleep near them who 

 is unaccustomed to their noise, which from the incessant lowing 

 and roaring of the bulls, is said very much to resemble distant 

 thunder. Although frequent battles take place between the bulls, 

 as among domestic cattle, the habits of the Bison are peaceful 

 and inoffensive, seldom or never offering to attack man or other 

 animals, uiiless outraged in the first instance. They sometimes, 

 when wounded, turn on the aggressor ; but it is only in the 

 bulling season when any danger is to be apprehended from the 

 ferocity and strength of the Bison bull. At all other times, 

 whether wounded or not, their efforts are exclusively directed 

 towai'ds effecting their escape from their pursuers, and at this 

 time it does not appear that their rage is provoked particularly 

 by an attack on themselves, but their usual intrepidity is indis- 

 criminately directed against all suspicious objects. 



" We shall conclude this account of the Bison, by introducing 

 the remarks of John E. Calhoun, Esq.,* relative to the extent of 

 country over which this animal formerly roved, and which it at 

 present inhabits. 



" The Buffalo was formerly found throughout the whole terri- 

 tory of the United States, with the exception of that part which 

 lies east of the Hudson's River and Lake Cham plain, and of 

 narrow strips of coast on the Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico. 

 These were swampy, and had probably low thick woods. 



" That it did not exist on the Atlantic coast, is rendered pro- 

 bable from the circumstance, that all the early v^riters whom 

 Mr. Calhoun has consulted on the subject, and they are nume- 

 rous, do not mention them as existing there, but further back. 

 Thomas Morton, one of the first settlers of New England, says, 



* Long's Expedition to the sources of the St. Peter's River, ii., p. 28. 



