70 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



lost from the herd, to follow one whenever opportunity for it offers. In this 

 way buffalo calves have frequently heen known to follow .1 horse and its 

 rider into the nearest military or trading post, mile- from the herd. Catlin 

 speaks of several that he sent down tlie Missouri by steamers to friends in 

 St. Louis, which had unwittingly in tins way made themselves prisoners. 



It may here he added, however, that the stupidity of the buffalo, as well 

 as its sagacity, has heen by some writers greatly overstated. A herd of buf- 

 faloes certainly possesses, in an eminent degree, the sheep-like propensity of 

 blindly following its leaders, whenever a large affrighted herd is fleeing from 

 some real or fancied danger. It certainly seems a stupid thing for a whole 

 herd to rush into destruction instead of turning aside and avoiding the 

 danger. A little reflection, however, will show that in such instances as the 

 rushing of a herd over a precipice, or into a pound prepared especially to en- 

 trap them, the act is not wholly one of stupidity, but comparable to that of a 

 panic-stricken crowd of human beings rushing pell-mell from a public build- 

 ing when an alarm of fire is given, at the cost of limbs and lives, when more 

 deliberate action would avoid such accidents. In the cast' of the buffalo, the 

 individuals in the front ranks of a herd, rushing to the verge of a precipice or 

 into a pound, discover the danger too late to be able to turn aside if they 

 would, owing to the irresistible pressure of the mass behind, who are not in 

 position to be aware of the danger towards which they are moving. Their 

 crowding together on weak ice may result in disasters they can he hardly 

 expected to foresee. Their crowding forward into quicksands is presumably 

 the blind action of more or less excited herds, — a rashness a single animal 

 or a few together would avoid. 



.Many other details respecting the habits of the huflalo might be appro- 

 priately added to the present account, especially in relation to their behavior 



in captivity, and w hen pursued or attacked h\ their human foes; hut as most 



of these points will he noticed quite fully incidentally in subsequent portions 

 of this memoir, it is perhaps unnecessary to refer to them further in the 



present connection. 



