26 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



quadrupeds have many features in common. Long 

 journeys in great numbers are, or were, undertaken by 

 the spring-buck, the American bison, the musk-ox, 

 and in smaller bodies by wild horses, and the antelopes 

 of the steppes. All these, with the exception of the 

 musk-ox in some of the mountains of Alaska, make 

 their journeys over plains, the spring-bucks over the 

 veldt, the bison on the prairie, the musk-oxen on the 

 "barren lands," the horses on the pampas, the ante- 

 lopes on an absolutely flat steppe. They are therefore 

 free to choose their own order, and like the migrating 

 hosts of Tartars, the majority of them usually move 

 on a wide front. In this order they avoid the constant 

 strain on the rear ranks of closing up in a hurry, which 

 is one of the standing difficulties of calvary marching 

 along roads. The German cavalry under Von Radowitz 

 tried the experiment of marching for a whole day 

 in extended line. Owing to the difficulty caused by 

 obstacles, the experiment was abandoned, though the 

 French cavalry in their manoeuvres still practise this, 

 to them, most difficult form of advance. For animals 

 it has another advantage. When halting to feed they 

 can browse straight forward in line, on grass untrodden 

 by animals in front. 



The march of the spring-bucks shows far the largest 

 bodies of large mammals to be seen in movement at 

 the present date. This, however, is not an orderly 

 progress. The herds are under no control, and move 

 on in a dense body, the centre packed close and the 

 flanks in loose order. Neither is facility for feeding 

 secured. The Dutch hunters say that the animals in 



