i8o DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



there the owner would make the bargain and col- 

 lect the money in advance at so much a head on 

 the animals to be sold and leave the purchaser to 

 get his animals as best he could they were there, 

 he might take them. On one occasion the purchaser 

 succeeded in herding his animals successfully down 

 at the station at Selish, where there stands an or- 

 dinary western cattle corral. All of my readers 

 who have traveled in the West are familiar with 

 the big enclosures built of cottonwood logs and 

 know what substantial affairs they are. Among 

 the animals driven into the corral on this occasion 

 was 



A DIGNIFIED BULL BUFFALO; 



the bull did not seem to realize that he was a 

 prisoner until the bars of the corral had closed upon 

 him and then he began to paw dirt and say things 

 and utter dire threats against the cowboys, station 

 hands, half-breeds, and Chinamen assembled 

 around the railroad station. Either these people 

 did not understand buffalo language or they 

 thought bull threats were idle boastings, for they 

 paid no attention to the animal until they were 

 aroused by the frightful splitting of timber as 

 the enraged bison came bodily through the splen- 

 did corral, then everybody sat up and took notice 

 and before the bull had time to shake the splintered 

 wood from his hide there was not a man in sight. 

 Just to show the people what he could do when he 

 tried, the big beast turned around, made a charge 



