284 CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



with long, shaggv hair, which in summer falls off, leaving the blackish-wrinkled skin exposed, except 

 on the forehead, hump, fore quarters, under jaw, and throat, where the hair is very long and shaggy, 

 and mixed with much wool. Catesby states that on the forehead of a bull the hair is a foot long, 

 thick, and frizzled, and of a dusky-black colour ; that the length of this hair hanging over their eyos 

 impedes their flight, and is frequently the cause of their destruction ; but that this obstruction of sight 

 is in some measure obviated by their good noses, which are no small safeguard to them. " A bull," 

 says he, " in summer, with his body bare and his head muffled with long hair, makes a very formidable 

 appearance. In summer the general colour of the hair is between dark -umber and liver-brown, and 

 lustrous. The tips of the hair, as it lengthens in winter, are paler, and before it is shed in summer 

 much of it becomes of a pale dull yellowish-brown.. In the female the head is smaller, and the hair 

 on the fore parts is not so long as it is in the male." These animals, it should be observed, are often 

 called " buffaloes." 



Congregating in. vast herds, the bisons are said to cover the wide-extended savannahs of the more 

 southern districts of the north for miles in extent. According to Lewis and Clarke, " such was their 

 multitude as they crossed the water, that although the river, including an island over which they 

 passed, was a mile in length, the herd stretched, as thick as they could swim, completely from the one 

 side to the other." On another occasion, they say,. " If it be not impossible to calculate the moving 

 multitude which darkened the whole plains, we are convinced that 2.0,000 would be no exaggerated 

 number." Catesby, after stating that they ranged in droves, feeding on the open savannahs morning 

 and 1 evening, says, that, in the sultry time of the clay, they retire to shady rivulets, and streams of clear 

 water girding through thickets of tall canes. Dr. James states thai, in the middle of the day, countless 

 thousands were seen coming in. from every quarter to the stagnant pools ; and in another place he says 

 that their paths are as frequent, and) almost as conspicuous, as the roads in the most populous parts of 

 the United States. 



The lamented Sir John Franklin, in the account of his first voyage, after stating that the Stone 

 Indians are so expert with their bow and arrow that they can strike a very small object at a con- 

 siderable distance, and shoot with sufficient force to pierce through the body of a buffalo or bison when 

 near, thus describes a " buffalo pound : " 



"It was a fenced, circular space, of about 100 yards in diameter; the entrance was banked up with 

 snow to a sufficient height to prevent the retreat of the animals that once have entered. For about a 

 mile on each side of the road leading to the pound, stakes were driven into the ground at nearly equal 

 distances of about twenty yards ; these were intended to represent men, and to deter the animals from 

 attempting to break out on. either side. Within fifty or sixty yards from the pound, branches of trees 

 were placed between these stakes to screen the Indians, who lie down behind them to await the 

 approach of the buffalo. The principal dexterity in this species of chase is shown by the horsemen, 

 who have to manoeuvre round the herd in the plains, so as to urge them to enter the roadway, which is 

 about a quarter of a mile broad. When this has been accomplished they raise loud shouts, and 

 pressing close upon the animals, so terrify them, that they rush heedlessl}- forward towards the snare. 

 When they have advanced as far as the men who are lying in ambush, they also rise, and increase the 

 consternation by violent shouting and firing guns. The affrighted beasts, having no alternative, run 

 directly to the pound, where they are quickly dispatched, either with an arrow or a gun. There was a 

 tree in the centre of the pound, on which the Indians had hung strips of buffalo flesh and pieces of 

 cloth, as tributary or grateful efferings to the Great Master of Life ; and we were told that they 

 occasionally place a man in the tree to sing to the presiding spirit as the buffaloes are advancing, who 

 must keep his station until the whole that have entered are killed." 



Sir John thus proceeds : " Other modes of killing the buffalo are practised by the Indians with 

 success ; of these, the hunting them on horseback requires most dexterity. An expert hunter, when 

 well mounted, dashes at the herd, and chooses an individual, which he endeavours to separate from the 

 rest. If he succeeds, he tries to keep him apart by the proper management of his horse, though going 

 at full speed. Whenever he can get sufficiently near for a ball to penetrate the beast's hide he tiros, 

 and seldom fails of bringing the animal down, though, of course, he cannot rest the piece against the 

 shoulder, or take a deliberate aim. On this service the hunter is often exposed to considerable 

 danger from the fall of his horse in the numerous holes which the badgers make in these plains, and 



