NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Prodigious strength and celerity. 



As soon as a herd is seen on the plain, the most 

 active of the horsemen prepare to attack them, 

 and, descending in the form of a widely extended 

 crescent, chace them in all directions. After a 

 while they become so jaded and weary, that they 

 seem ready to sink under their fatigue; but the 

 hunters, still urging them to flight by their loud 

 cries, drive them at length from the field: and 

 such as are unable to exert the necessary speed 

 for escape are slaughtered. 



To give an idea of the prodigious strength of 

 these quadrupeds, it has been remarked, that in 

 fleeing from a pursuer through the woods, they 

 are frequently known to brush down trees consi- 

 derably thicker than a man's arm; and they will 

 run through the deepest snow with greater celerity 

 than an Indian could traverse its frozen surface in 

 snow-shoes. " To this/' says Mr. Hearne, " I 

 have been an eye-witness many times, and once 

 had the vanity to think that I could have kept 

 pace with them ; but though I was at that time 

 celebrated for being particularly fleet in snow- 

 shoes, I soon found that I was no match for the 

 bisons, notwithstanding they were then plunging 

 through such deep snow, that their bellies made 

 a trench in it as large as if many heavy sacks had 

 been hauled through it." 



The sagacity which these animals exhibit in 

 defending themselves against the attacks of the 

 wolves is too remarkable to be passed over in 

 silence. When they scent the approach of a 



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