1 68 SPORTIXG ADVENTURES 



steer would starve ; and as it associates readily with the do- 

 mestic species, it requires no unusual care. 



The favourite habitat of the animal in its wild state is a 

 rolling plain where a short but very nutritious species of the 

 gramma 1 , known locally as the buffalo grass, grows in profusion. 

 This is the most pugnacious grass known, for it will allow no 

 rivals to intrude on its ground, but if they do they are soon 

 crowded out of existence. Like the bunch grass (Festucca 

 szctlrella}, of which the buffalo is also fond, it cures on the stalk, 

 and so a fiords pabulum tolarge numbers of quadrupeds through- 

 out the year, for it is really the only thing they can depend on 

 for food during the winter. The buffaloes that frequent the 

 northern regions obtain it in winter by scraping away the 

 snow ; but during severe seasons, when the snow is deep, and 

 the crust hard, they cannot get at it, and the result is that 

 many thousands starve to death. This is one of the reasons 

 for their decimation, as much almost as their wanton slaughter 

 by Indians, hide- hunters, and sportsmen. It is pitiful to hear 

 the deep, gruff bellowing of the poor creatures then as they 

 wander over the snow-fields in search of food, or rush wildly 

 about when almost mad with hunger. 



A stranger who never saw a buffalo ground would know it 

 immediately by the number of wallows it contains, and the 

 numerous skulls that lie about in every direction. The latter 

 are so deceptive that I have more than once mistaken them at 

 a distance for living animals, and wasted valuable time in 

 carefully stalking them. "When this error has been committed 

 a few times, however, a person learns to be more cautious and 

 less enthusiastic, and to be sure that he is not labouring under 

 a mistake before commencing his stealthy, crawling, and often 

 fatiguing "still hunt." 



The wallows, according to Catlin, are made by the strongest 

 bulls for the purpose of enjoying a bath. A veteran with 

 ponderous horns, on reaching a spot where the earth seems 

 damp, lowers himself on one knee, and plunging his horns, 

 and at last his head, into the ground, makes an excavation 

 into which the water filters from amonirst the irrass, forming 



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lor him, in a few minutes, a cool and comfortable bath, into 



