HISTORY OF THE BISON. 73 



bellowing and groaning, their dark color, and above all 

 their numbers, must have a splendid effect. 



In their most southerly latitudes they are migrant, and 

 probably they are so also in their most northerly ones ; but 

 there is no reason to suppose that any of them migrate 

 through the extremes of their distribution, which are about 

 two thousand miles asunder, or even over the tenth part of 

 that long distance. The very instinct or tendency, what- 

 ever it may be, which renders animals social or gregarious 

 keeps them as a matter of fact and of course to their own 

 herd ; and they never quit that but when the others expel 

 them by force, and the reception with which the exiled 

 beasts are greeted by new herds, which they attempt to join, 

 are not of the most courteous nature. Thus it is probable 

 that where the savannah is so large as to admit of the 

 assembly of thousands, they shift only from one part to the 

 other, as the seasons require, approaching the waters in the 

 droughts, and retiring from them during the rains.- 



In their more southerly localities, where the character of 

 the seasons is more tropical, and the plains are entirely 

 destitute of herbage, saving only aloes and other esculent 

 plants, they are much more migratory ; and have some 

 analogy in their motion to the herds on the plains of Asia. 

 Though even in those places the migration appears to be as 

 much to the hill as to the northward in summer ; though 

 they collect in the more temperate forests in winter. In 

 the north they are of much smaller size, and shaggy in their 

 coats, and not so spirited as in those latitudes which are 

 the most congenial to their habits. 



They are said not to be naturally vicious, but are 

 easily excited, and then their activity often makes them 

 mischievous. They are capable of a sort of domestication, 

 but are neither very pleasant or profitable on a farm. 

 Their form disqualifies them for animals of draught; 



