BISON. 



BISON. 



among horse-jockeys, implying the practices 

 employed to conceal the age of an old horse, 

 or the ill properties of a bad one. See AGE 

 OF HOUSES. 



BISON, AMERICAN (Bos American) . 

 This species of the ox kind is peculiar to the 

 temperate latitudes of North America, where 

 it is universally, though incorrectly called the 

 Buffalo, a name properly belonging to a diller- 

 ent species of the ox tribe common to Eastern 

 Asia. The bison was found by the first colo- 

 nists of the Carolinas, and other of the South- 

 ern and Middle States, from which parts of the 

 North American Continent they have long 

 been exterminated or frightened away. So 

 late as the year 1766, they were seen in a wild 

 state in Kentucky. At present none are to be 

 met with east of the Mississippi river, having 

 retired beyond this great stream, and concen- 

 trated in the praries of the Missouri and other 

 rivers of the far west. Here they often unite 

 in immense herds, some of which, travellers 

 and hunters inform us, contain eight or ten 

 thousand. Generally speaking, the bison is 

 rather timid, flying from the hunter, except in 

 the rutting season, about the middle of June, 

 when the males become very fierce, and often 

 kill each other in their terrible combats. 



The qualities of buffalo beef are highly ex- 

 tolled, and the hump upon the shoulders is re- 

 garded as a particularly choice morsel. The 

 tongues, which constitute a regular article of 

 trade, are exceedingly rich and tender. The 

 thick and rough hairy skins of the bison are 

 tanned by the Indians and trappers, and then 

 sold to be formed into buffalo robes and other 

 articles of comfort, so useful during the severe 

 winters of the United States. 



The following highly interesting account of 

 the American Bison is taken from the Ameri- 

 can Farmer, (vol. vi. p. 260), under the head 

 of Buffalo Oxen. 



" The animal known by the name of the 

 Buffalo throughout the valleys of Missouri, and 

 Mississippi differs materially from the buffa- 

 lo of the Old World. At first view, his red 

 fiery eyes, his shaggy mane, and long beard, 

 the long lustrous hair upon his shoulders and 

 fore-quarters, and the comparative nakedness 

 of his hind-quarters, strongly remind a specta- 

 tor of the lion. 



" In the size of his head, in bulk, in stature, 

 and in fierceness, he resembles the buffalo of 

 Buffon ; but the humps or protuberance be- 

 tween his shoulders, the shape of his head, his 

 curled forehead, short thick arms, and long hind 

 legs, mark a much stronger affinity to the bison. 



" He carries his head low like the buffalo, 

 and this circumstance, together with his short 

 muscular neck, broad chest, and short thick 

 arms, designate him as peculiarly qualified for 

 drawing : the whole weight of his body would 

 thus be applied in the most advantageous man- 

 ner to the weight drawn. The milk of the fe- 

 male is equal in quality to that of the cow, but 

 deficient in quantity. It has been supposed 

 that the smallness of the udders is more re- 

 markable in those that have the hump large, 

 and that the diminished size of the hump is 

 evidence of a more abundant secretion of 

 milk The hump, when dressed, tastes like 

 182 



i the udder of a cow, and is deemed a delicacy 

 i by the Indians. But there is one other particu- 

 ' lar which distinguishes the buffalo of the 

 New World from its eastern namesake more 

 distinctly than any variety of conformation 

 could do. The cow refuses to breed with the 

 buffalo of Europe ; and such is the fixed 

 aversion between these creatures, that they 

 always keep separate, although bred under 

 the same roof and feeding in the same pas- 

 ture. The American buffalo, on the contrary, 

 breeds freely with the domestic cattle, and 

 propagates a race that continues its kind. 

 Many of the landholders in Louisiana, like 

 the patriarchs of old, possess thousands of 

 cattle which graze at liberty in the unculti- 

 vated prairies. These herds cost their owners 

 little more than the trouble of marking them, 

 and the expense of salting once or twice in a 

 month, to prevent them from becoming wild. 

 By occupying the same pastures, they have be 

 come so much intermixed with the buffalo 

 that it is difficult to say to which race they are 

 most nearly allied. 



"In procuring the cross, it is necessary to 

 observe one precaution. The domestic breed 

 must furnish the male, and the buffalo the 

 female. The wild bull and the cow can be 

 brought together without difficulty, and the im- 

 pregnation is perfect ; but the pelvis of the 

 cow is not sufficiently capacious to allow the 

 passage of the buffalo's fetus with its hump. 

 The pelvis is the circular bone which connects 

 the spine with the thigh bones, and when the 

 foetus, from disease or any other cause, is too 

 large to pass through it, the female must neces- 

 sarily die in labour. This fact constitutes the 

 principal obstacle to the introduction of the 

 half breed in the old settlements. It would be 

 easy to catch and tame a single male of the 

 wild breed, and to obtain any number of im- 

 pregnations from him; but it is difficult to pro- 

 cure, and still more to confine a sufficient 

 number of wild females. The amazing strength 

 of the head and breast enables them to overset 

 the strongest fences by running against them ; 

 and unless they are caught very young, they 

 can never be effectually tamed. Nevertheless, 

 some enterprising farmers in this state and 

 Missouri are introducing the breed. Captain 

 Jenkins of Rutherford county, has one three 

 years old and one two years old of the half 

 blood, and several calves of the quarter blood, 

 all of which are large for their age, and pro- 

 mise well. The advantages proposed by the 

 introduction of this breed are, that the oxen 

 thus raised will be stronger, less sluggish, more 

 hardy, and more easily kept, and (if it be 

 true that the buffalo goes twelve months with 

 young) they will probably last longer than the 

 common breed. In addition to these conside- 

 rations, the hides are larger and applicable to 

 a greater number of uses, and the leather is 

 thicker, softer, and more impervious to water. 

 The full grown buffalo on the Missouri are 

 said to be from -sixteen to eighteen hands high, 

 and as the body is larger in proportion to the 

 height, than in the domestic cattle, they must 

 greatly exceed the finest of the imported breed 

 in strength and weight. In the neighbourhood 

 of the settlements, the hunter's dogs and 



