AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPERIMENT. 281 



soon ascended the Saline " breaks," and emerged on 

 the plains above. Looking to us as if they had not 

 changed position for twenty-four hours, the buffalo 

 herds still covered the face of the country, busy as 

 ever in their constant occupation of feeding. For 

 animals which perform no labor, they have an egre- 

 gious appetite, eating as if they were Nature's lawn- 

 gardeners, and were under contract with her to keep 

 the grass shaved. 



What an immense aggregate of animal power was 

 running to waste before us. Those huge shoulders, 

 to which the whole body seemed simply a base, were 

 just the things for neck-yokes. Others, indeed, had 

 thought the same before us, and tried to utilize these 

 wild oxen. A gentleman at Salina, Kansas, obtained 

 two buffalo calves, and trained them carefully to the 

 yoke. They pulled admirably, but their very strength 

 proved a temptation to them. A pasture-fence was 

 no obstacle in the way of their sweet will. ]N"ot that 

 they went over it, but they simply walked through it, 

 boards being crushed as readily as a willow thicket. 

 In summer they took the shortest road to water, 

 regardless of intervening obstructions, and they 

 thought nothing of flinging themselves over a per- 

 pendicular bank, wagon and all., After carefully 

 calculating the result of his experiment at the end of 

 the first year, the owner decided that, although he 

 undoubtedly had a large amount of power on hand, he 

 could obtain a similar quantity, at less expense, by 

 buying a couple of steam-engines. 



A few months previous to our trip, a contractor on 

 the Kansas Pacific Railroad determined to domesti> 



