ADRIFT ON THE ICE. 225 



the hump, the shortness of their horns, and the 

 quantity of hair about all their fore parts. 



When congregated together in fair weather, 



calm or nearly so, the bellowing of a large herd 



■which sometimes contains a thousand) may be 



leard at the extraordinary distance of ten miles 



;t least. 



In -winter, when the ice has become strong 

 enough to bear the weight of many tons, buffa- 

 loes are often drowned in great numbers, for 

 they are in the habit of crossing rivers on the 

 ice, and should any alarm occur, rush in a dense 

 cro^d to one place ; the ice gives way beneath 

 the pressure of hundreds of these huge animals, 

 they are precipitated into the water, and if it is 

 deep enough to reach over their backs, soon 

 perish. Sliould the water, however, be shallow, 

 they scuffle through the broken and breaking 

 ice, in the greatest disorder, to the shore. 



From time to time small herds, crossing rivers 

 on the ice in the spring, are set adrift in con- 

 sequence of the sudden breaking of the ice after 

 a rise in the river. They have been seen floating 

 on such occasions in groups of three, four, and 

 sometimes eight or ten together, although on 

 separate cakes of ice. A few stragglers have 

 been known to reach the shore in an almost ex- 

 hausted state, but the majority perish from cold 



