432 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887, 



where hundreds of his companions were already ingulfed and in their 

 death-struggle. He would quit feeding, run half a mile, and rush head- 

 long into a moving train of cars that happened to come between him 

 and the main herd on the other side of the track. He allowed himself 

 to be impounded and slaughtered by a howling mob in a rudely con- 

 structed pen, which a combined effort on the part of three or four old 

 bulls would have utterly demolished at any point. A herd of a thou- 

 sand buffaloes would allow an armed hunter to gallop into their midst, 

 very often within arm's-length, when any of the bulls nearest him might 

 easily have bowled him over and had him trampled to death in a moment. 

 The hunter who would ride in that manner into a herd of the Cape buf- 

 faloes of Africa {Bubalus caffer) would be unhorsed and killed before he 

 had gone half a furlong. 



(2) Curiosity. — The buffalo of the past possessed but little curiosity ; 

 he was too dull to entertain many unnecessary thoughts. Had he pos- 

 sessed more of this peculiar trait, which is the mark of an inquiring 

 mind, he would much sooner have accomplished a comprehension of the 

 dangers that proved his destruction. His stolid indifference to every- 

 thing he did not understand cost him his existence, although in later 

 years he displayed more interest in his environment. On one occasion 

 in hunting I staked my success with an old bull I was pursuing on the 

 chance that when he reached the crest of a ridge his curiosity would 

 prompt him to pause an instant to look at me. TJp to that moment he 

 had had only one quick glance at me before he started to run. As he- 

 climbed the slope ahead of me, in full view, I dismounted and made 

 ready to fire the instant he should pause to look at me. As I expected, 

 he did come to a full stop on the crest of the ridge, and turned half 

 around to look at me. But for his curiosity I should have been obliged 

 to fire at him under very serious disadvantages. 



(3) Fear. — With the buffalo, fear of man is now the ruling passion. 

 Says Colonel Dodge : " He is as timid about his flank and rear as a raw 

 recruit. When traveling nothing in front stops him, but an unusual 

 object in the rear will send him to the right-about [toward the main 

 body of the herd] at the top of his speed." 



(4) Courage. — It was very seldom that the buffalo evinced any cour- 

 age save that of despair, which even cowards possess. Unconscious of 

 his strength, his only thought was flight, and it was only when brought 

 to bay that he was ready to fight. Now and then, however, in the 

 chase, the buffalo turned upon his pursuer and overthrew horse and 

 rider. Sometimes the tables were completely turned, and the hunter 

 found his only safety in flight. During the buffalo slaughter the butchers 

 sometimes had narrow escapes from buffaloes supposed to be dead or 

 mortally wounded, and a story comes from the great northern range 

 south of Glendive of a hunter who was killed by an old bull whose 

 tongue he had actually cut out in the belief that he was dead. 



Sometimes buffalo cows display genuine courage in remaining with 



