212 THE OX. 



long, terminated by a tuft of hair. The female is smaller 

 than the male, and has shorter horns, and less of hair on the 

 anterior parts. The male, when fully grown, has been some- 

 times found to weigh 2000 lb., though the average weight is 

 said to be 12 or 14 cwt. 



This is a very strong and agile creature, making its way 

 with great swiftness through tangled brushwood and heaps 

 of snow. He is more irritable than dangerous, and flies from 

 the sight of the hunter. When attacked by large dogs, he 

 defends himself with courage. If his enemies catch him by 

 his shaggy coat, he tosses them overhead in an instant. 

 Should they succeed in pinning him by the nose, after the 

 manner of attack by the bull-dog, he spreads his fore-legs, 

 and brings his hind-feet forward till he treads the dog be- 

 neath him. He then tears his head loose, regardless of the 

 wound, and crushes his enemy beneath his feet. These animals 

 are eminently gregarious and migratory. They feed on the 

 herbage of plains, and the sedgy plants of morasses and 

 swamps. They are fond of salt, and travel great distances to 

 the saline springs which yield this condiment : they swim 

 with ease, crossing the most rapid rivers : they delight in 

 coolness and moisture, bathing in pools and lakes during the 

 heat of summer : in the winter season they dig the snow 

 with their feet, that they may reach the plants beneath. They 

 inhabit the temperate parts of North America, congregating 

 in herds, in the woods and vast plains and savannahs where 

 they feed. In summer they migrate northward, and then it 

 is that they are seen in those prodigious herds that strike 

 the traveller with wonder. The countless multitude seems 

 to darken the plain, and stretch to the horizon. Captains 

 Lewis and Clark, on one occasion, mention that the moving 

 mass which they beheld could not be less than 20,000 in 

 number. At another time, they saw a herd crossing the 

 Missouri, which, though the river was a mile in breadth, 

 stretched across it from side to side as thick as the animals 

 could swim. 



