STRANGE CREATURES MET IN THE WATER 557 



loaded, swim long distances in the Western rivers and 

 also in the East River here in New York. Once when 

 I was a small boy I was watching the soldiers loading 

 a steamboat with Texas steers. It was during the War 

 of the Rebellion and the town was in a state of siege and 

 filled with blue uniformed soldiers. Along the levee, 

 in three thin blue lines, were stretched six or eight regi- 

 ments ; the men were sitting or lying on the dusty ground 

 with their arms stacked in front of them; the soldiers 

 were all laughing at the efforts of their comrades to 

 drive the cattle aboard the steamer. There was a gang- 

 plank from the levee up to the steamer deck and a fence 

 lashed upon each side of the gang-plank, but the cattle 

 did not relish the idea of traveling across this bridge, 

 nor did they like the looks of the boilers and furnaces 

 on the deck of the steamer, so, to persuade the cat- 

 tle to move ahead it was frequently necessary for the 

 soldiers to grasp their tails and wind them around, as 

 one would turn a key in a clock. The men were busily 

 engaged in this operation on the caudal appendage of an 

 immense longhorn Texan ox, when the enraged ani- 

 mal broke down the railing, threw his two tormentors 

 into the water on one side and plunged into the stream 

 himself on the other side of the plank. The men swam 

 and scrambled ashore, but the ox got there first, and, 

 lowering his head and breathing defiance to the whole 

 United States army, he charged the regiments biv- 

 ouacked upon the levee. 



The boys in blue were brave men and seasoned vet- 

 erans; they all knew the hot breath of the cannon and 

 the song that the Minie rifle balls sang, but when the 



