XII 



THE BISON 



SO well established is the word buffalo that the 

 American bison is seldom called by its right 

 name. Although related to the Old-World buffalo, the 

 naturalists have decided that our animal must remain 

 a bison, and the sportsmen, who hereafter will only 

 shoot this animal in the game-preserves, must go " bi- 

 son "-hunting, if they would speak correctly. The dif- 

 ference between chasing these animals about in an en- 

 closure surrounded by a wire fence and running them 

 on the limitless plains of the West is sufficient, how- 

 ever, to warrant a change of name. The word bison 

 was never used on the Western plains when the writer 

 formed this animal's acquaintance, and we may be 

 excused, therefore, if we get to " buffalo "-hunting be- 

 fore the end of the chapter. Irving furnishes the lit- 

 erary warrant for "buffalo," if one be needed, in " The 

 Adventures of Captain Bonneville " and " The Crayon 

 Miscellany," Within the memory of many sportsmen 

 now living, the bison covered the great plains of North 

 America in numbers which would be beyond the belief 

 of those who did not see them, were it not for the 

 cumulative evidence of many writers of unquestioned 

 veracity, who have described the vast herds as they saw 

 them and furnished statistics of the numbers slain and 



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