62 The King of the Thundering Herd 



The hump upon his shoulders seemed to 

 be a natural sequence from his massive 

 head and thick neck, which would need 

 just such fore-quarters to support them. 

 His hind-quarters were rather slight, com- 

 pared with his fore-quarters, and were 

 adorned with a short, sparsely-haired tail, 

 which usually stuck straight up when the 

 bison galloped over the plains at his best 

 pace. 



The entire robe of the King, aside from 

 the black markings, was a deep rich brown, 

 which certain times of the year has a fine 

 gloss. That the coat was thick and warm, 

 suitable to shield its wearer from the most 

 extreme cold, could also be plainly seen 

 through the glass. 



So well is the buffalo protected by his 

 splendid coat, that a calf that was dropped 

 in Northern Dakota in February, with the 

 thermometer forty below zero, did not seem 

 to mind the cold reception that he had at 



