530 HISTORY Ot 



very exactly, except in some trifling varieties, which his state of 

 wildness, or the richness of the pastures where he is found, mav 

 easily have produced. 



The bison, which is another variety of the cow kind, differs 

 from the rest, in havuig a lump between its shoulders. These 

 animals are of various kinds ; some very large, others as diminu' 

 lively little. In general, to regard this animal's fore-parts, he 

 has somewhat the look of a lion, with a long shaggy mane, and a 

 beard under his chin ; his head is little, his eyes red and fiery, 

 with a furious look ; the forehead is large, and the horns so big, 

 and so far asunder, that three men might often sit between them. 

 On the middle of the back there grows a bunch almost as high 

 as that of a camel, covered with hair, and which is considered as 

 a gi'eat delicacy by those that hunt him. There is no pursuing 

 him with safety, except in forests where there are trees large 

 enough to hide the hunters. He is generally taken by pitfalls : 

 the inhabitants of those counti'ies where he is found wild, digg- 

 ing holes in the ground, and covering them over with boughs of 

 trees and grass ; then provoking the bison to pursue them, they 

 get on the opposite side of the pit-fall, while the furious animal, 

 running head foremost, falls into the pit pi'epared for him, and 

 is there quickly overcome and slain. 



Besides these real distinctions in the cow kind, there have 

 been many others made, that appear to be in name only. Thus 

 the bonasus, of which naturalists have given us long descriptions, 

 is supposed by Klein and Buffon to be no more than another 

 name for the bison, as the descriptions given of them by the an- 

 cients coincide. The bubalus also of the ancients, which some 

 have supposed to belong to the cow kind, Buffon places among 

 the lower class of ruminant quadrupeds, as it most resembles 

 them in size, shape, and the figure of its horns. Of all the va- 

 rieties, therefore, of the cow kind, there are but two that are 

 really distinct ; namely, the cow and the buffalo : these two are 

 separated by nature ; they seem to bear an antipathy to each 

 other; they avoid each other, and maybe considered as much 

 removed as the horse is from the ass or the zebra When, there- 

 fore, we have described the varieties of the cow kind, we shall 

 pass on to the buffalo, which, being a different animal, requires a 

 separate history. 



There is scarcely a part of the world, as was said before, in 



