24 THE BISON. 



skin, which at one time fetched a high price in the market. 

 His chief food is of a vegetable nature — grain, fruits, and 

 roots; but he does not object to an occasional meal of pork. 

 He commits extensive depredations on the maize-fields, and 

 is exceedingly partial to honey. Such being his usual diet, 

 we need not wonder that his flesh is exceedingly succulent, 

 and much relished by the Canadian settlers. 



We cannot speak of the prairies without calling to mind 

 the Bison, which reigns over them as undisputed lord. He 

 traverses their entire extent from north to south. Ac- 

 cording to some naturalists, he is but a variety of the 

 aurochs, the fierce wild bull which formerly inhabited the 

 forests of Gaul, Germany, and Sarmatia, and is still found, 

 though in vastly diminished numbers, in the densely- 

 wooded solitudes of Lithuania. Herds of aurochs, under 

 the special protection of the Czar, who reserves them as 

 game for imperial and royal hunters, still roam in the 

 remotest recesses of the great Lithuanian forest of Bielo- 

 wicza. They are believed to muster about eight hundred 

 strong. 



The American Bison, or BufiTalo, ranges as far as the 

 Great Martin Lake, in lat. 63°, while it congregates in 

 countless thousands on the rolling prairies between the 

 Bocky Mountains and the Mississippi. Their flesh sup- 

 plies the chief provision of several Indian tribes, who hunt 

 them on horseback, and kill them with bow and arrow, 

 spear, and rifle. The chase is full of excitement, and ofiers 

 a singular attraction to the bold and restless spirits of the 

 New World. It is exciting because dangerous ; for, when 



