BUFFALOES 



animals would generally stand until many were 

 dropped by the sure aim of the Indians' arrows. 

 The little band that fed near my childhood 

 home, long since made shy by ruthless slaughter, 

 could be seen almost any pleasant day during 

 the winter feeding near or with our cattle. In 

 the latter part of March, I noticed one day that 

 a little buffalo calf had been added to the herd ; 

 by the last of June there were two more calves 

 gamboling around their proud, devoted mothers. 

 There was a deep, narrow gulch at the head of 

 the canon known to the settlers as " The Devil's 

 Gap." One warm day in early summer one of 

 the old buffalo bulls walked to the edge of the 

 Gap and stood stupidly and vacantly gazing 

 for some time. Presently he lowered himself 

 on one knee and began tearing the earth with 

 his short stout horns. When he had dug up a 

 foot of the clay it became moist for there was a 

 spring of water that trickled out from the side 

 of the Gap but a few feet below him. When 

 the old bull struck the wet sub-soil he threw up 

 the dirt for eighteen or twenty feet around, then 

 lay down in the soft depression and began to 

 "wallow." One after another the huge animals 



