THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



westward the ground was almost wholly bare. I was informed, furthermore, 

 that this was the usual distribution of the snow in this region whenever any 

 fell there. Although occasionally the snow does not accumulate in sufficient 

 quantity to render grazing difficult over any of the country west of Fossil 

 Creek, the buffaloes regularly abandon this region in winter for the country 

 further west, where snow is of more exceptional occurrence. 



The wanderings of the buffaloes often render it necessary for them to 

 cross large streams, which they seem to do with reckless fearlessness and at 

 almost any season of the year, though frequently at the cost of the lives of 

 many of the old and feeble as well as of the young. Lewis and Clarke 

 speak of their crossing the Upper Missouri in such numbers as to delay their 

 boat, the river being fdled with them as thick as they could swim for the 

 distance of a mile* Other Western travellers mention similar scenes.! Bad 

 landing-places, such as bluffy banks or miry shores, often prove fatal to the 

 half-exhausted creature after reaching the shore. J In winter they boldly 

 cross the rivers on the ice ; towards spring, however, after the ice has 

 become weakened by melting, and even occasionally at other times, in con- 

 sequence of their crowding too thickly together, the ice breaks beneath their 

 weight and great numbers are drowned. In spring they often cross amid 

 the floating ice, at which times they are sometimes set upon by the Indians, 

 to whom they then fall an easy prey. According to Audubon, small herds 

 occasionally find themselves adrift on masses of floating ice. where the ma- 

 jority perish from cold and lack of food rather than trust themselves to the 

 icy, turbulent waters.§ 



The behavior and movements of the buffalo are in general very much like 

 those of domestic cattle, but their speed and endurance seem to be far 



* Lewii and Clarke's Exped, VoL II. p 



t ratlin, North Am. Indian*. Vol. II. p. i:i; Fremont, Explorations, etc., p 23. 



I The following incident in point i< related by Colonel Dodge: •• I. at.' in the rammer of 1887 n herd of 

 probably four thousand bnffaloei attempted t" cross the South Platte near Plum ('nek. The river wai rap- 

 idly subsiding, being nowhere over a f ■ ►• >t or two in depth, and the channels in the bed were filled or filling 

 with loose quicksand. The buffaloes in front were hopelessly ~inek. Those immediately behind, urged on 

 by tie- horns and pressure of those yet further in tin 1 rear, trampled over their struggling companions to I*' 

 themselves ingulfed in the devouring sand. This was continued until the lied of the river, nearly half a 

 mile broad, was covered with dead or dying buffaloes. Only a comparative f. » ai tuallj crossed the ri\er. 



and ile ■■■ were (riven back by bunti timated that considerably more than half the herd, 



.r over two thousand buffaloes, paid for this attempt with their lives.' august ■'•. 



i ■*::.. 



§ Audubon and Bat Oman, 'J" id. N. A..,.. Vol n. p. 38. 



