178 THE OX FAMILY 



bison was a disgraceful performance. No one would 

 have believed it possible to kill so many animals in 

 so short a space of time. Although a heavy animal in 

 appearance, the bison is surprisingly quick, both in 

 arising from the ground and in running away from its 

 enemies. Captain Bonneville first mentioned this, say- 

 ing: "Such is the quickness with which this animal 

 springs upon his legs, that it is not easy to discover 

 the muscular process by which it is effected. The 

 horse rises first upon his forelegs; and the domestic 

 cow upon her hinder limbs; but the buffalo bounds at 

 once from a couchant to an erect position, with a celer- 

 ity that baffles the eye. Though from his bulk and 

 rolling gait he does not appear to run with much 

 swiftness, yet it takes a stanch horse to overtake him 

 when at full speed on level ground; and a buffalo cow 

 is still fleeter in her motion." To the captain's accurate 

 description of the gait and speed of this remarkable 

 animal, he might have added the fact that the bison has 

 great staying power and runs at full speed to great dis- 

 tances, so that vuiless the horse have a good start or 

 be not too far away from the animals when they take the 

 alarm, the chase will prove a long one, and the horse 

 may give out before it is possible to fire a shot. 

 Another remarkable thing which enables the bison to 

 escape is his ability to run down the steepest and 

 most precipitous places at full speed, going over the 

 edges of high hills and racing or sliding down their 

 steep sides, where no horseman would dare follow at a 

 walk, and climbing up similar places with an agility 

 equal to that of a goat. Grinnell says they were al- 

 most as active as the mountain-sheep. 



