IN THE FAR WEST. iCi 



New Mexico, but it is nowhere abundant compared to what 

 it was. 



There are supposed to be two distinct species of the animal, 

 namely, the common one which frequents the prairies, and 

 the wood, or mountain buffalo, which is never seen on the 

 plains, and cannot be induced to leave its forest home. The 

 latter, according- to Hind, is not uncommon north of the 

 Saskatchewan region, but in the United States it is confined 

 to the wooded mountainous regions of Montana, Dakota, 

 Colorado, and Idaho. It differs from its lowland congener in 

 being much heavier in body, having shorter and more robust 

 legs, a soft and uncurled mane, a softer and finer pelage, and 

 having the bump of cautiousness more largely developed, so 

 that it is not unlike the Lithuanian aurochs. It can pick its 

 way amid crags and chasms with an agility worthy of a goat, 

 and with much greater ease than one would give it credit for. 

 Owing to the wild, and sometimes inaccessible character of its 

 haunts, it is not hunted much, so that little is knownof its habits, 

 but they do not vary much, in all probability, from those of its 

 better known kindred, the difference being such as a person 

 would expect to find between animals whose haunts are so 

 totally distinct. 



An adult male of the common species is about six feet high 

 at the fore-shoulders; measures from eight to eight and a half 

 feet in length ; the horns are between twelve and thirteen 

 inches in length, and the tail about twenty ; and when the 

 animal is in good condition it frequently weighs two thousand 

 pounds, but the ordinary weight is between twelve and six- 

 teen hundred pounds. Large and heavy as it is, it cannot 

 compare with the pre-historic species of the West, for, judging 

 from the fossil remains found, that must have been seven or 

 eight times its size, and, if everything was in proportion, must 

 have weighed several thousand pounds. 



If Ximrods chased it, they must have been giants indeed, 

 and worthy con temporaries of the mastodons, gigantic elephants, 

 turtles, sloths, and other huge animals that roamed over the 

 earth in the misty past. 



The modern bison would be a good example to prove that 



M 



