THE BUFFALO. 281 



ing upon black; his muzzle, liorns, and hoofs, black; his 

 liead and shoulders massive in size — the shoulders rising 

 in a hump a foot or more in height; his hips low and 

 small, but well rounded; his tail shorter than that of the 

 domestic ox, slim and smooth, tipped with a tuft of long, 

 black hair; his legs, below the knees, wonderfully slender 

 for so huge an animal; and the weight of a fully developed 

 male probably not less than two thousand pounds. 



His horns were short, and large at the base, tapering 

 rapid 1}^ to a point, and curved in the best shape for attack 

 or defense, as many an untrained horse found to his cost; 

 and these formidable weapons were, in the case of the male, 

 almost completely hidden in the mass of long, curly, black 

 hair which enveloped his head, neck, and shoulders, and 

 which gave to him, when seen in front, a peculiarly Lion- 

 like and very formidable api:)earance. 



The female, in shape of body, resembled the male — high 

 at the top of the shoulders and low at the hips, but desti- 

 tute of mane, and with her body covered, as were the hind 

 quarters of the male, with a coat of short, thick hair, 

 underlaid in winter with fine, soft fur. The scent of the 

 Buffalo was very keen, and his speed almost equal to that 

 of the lioi'se. 



Among his numerous natural enemies, the Indian and 

 the large Gray or Buffalo AVolf worked his greatest destruc- 

 tion, although many different animals preyed upon the 

 weak and the defenseless of the herds; and Daniel Boone 

 is said to have once shot a huge Panther while the fierce 

 brute was clinging to the back of a Buffalo, in the days 

 when Kentucky was yet the "dark and bloody ground" 

 of the savage. 



With the advent of the European came improved 

 weapons and greater intelligence to tlie work of destruc- 

 tion, and the extermination of the Buffalo began. The 

 half-breed Indians of the Red River of the North, who for 

 many years hunted Buffaloes, and fought the Dacotahs on 

 the plains to the southwest of the Selkirk Settlement, were 

 among the first to reduce Buffalo-hunting to a system, and 



