256 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1772. the belly, take out all the intestines, cut off the head, and 

 * make it as light as possible, before they turn it to skin the 

 under side. The skin is in some places of an incredible thick- 

 ness, particularly about the neck, where it often exceeds an 

 inch. The horns are short, black, and almost straight, but 

 very thick at the roots or base. 



The head of an old bull is of a great size and weight 

 indeed : some which I have seen were so large, that I could 

 not without difficulty lift them from the ground ; * [252] but 

 the heads of the cows are much smaller. Their tails are, in 

 general, about a foot long, though some appear to be, exclusive 

 of the long brush of hair at the end, longer. The hair on the 

 tails of the bulls is generally of a fine glossy black ; but the 

 brush at the end of the cows' tails is always of a rusty brown, 

 probably owing to being stained with their urine. 



The hair of the body is soft and curled, somewhat approach- 

 ing to wool ; it is generally of a sandy brown, and of an equal 

 length and thickness all over the body : but on the head and 

 neck it is much longer than it is on any other part. 



The Indians, after reducing all the parts of the skin to an 

 equal thickness by scraping, dress them in the hair for clothing ; 

 when they are light, soft, warm, and durable. They also 

 dress some of those skins into leather without the hair, of 

 which they make tents and shoes ; but the grain is remarkably 

 open and spungy, by no means equal in goodness to that of 

 the skin of the moose : nor am I certain that the curriers or 

 tanners in Europe could manufacture these skins in such a 



* It is remarked by Mr. Catesby, in his description of this animal, that no 

 man can lift one of their heads. Those I saw in the Athapuscow country are 

 such as I have described ; and I am assured by the Company's servants, as 

 well as the Indians who live near Hudson's House, that the buffalos there are 

 much smaller ; so that the species Mr. Catesby saw, or wrote of, must have 

 been much larger, or have had very large heads ; for it is well known that a 

 man of any tolerable strength can lift two and a half, or three hundred pounds 

 weight. I think that the heads of his buffalos are too heavy for the bodies, as 

 the bodies of those I saw in the Athapuscow country appear to have been of 

 equal weight with his. 



