590 UNGULATA. 



symptom of danger they disappear like magic in the thicket, and never 

 stop until far removed from even the apprehension of pursuit." 



Old mountaineers give marvellous accounts of the number of these 

 animals " many years ago," and ascribe their present rarity to the great 

 snow-storm of 1844, which wrought such havoc with the buffaloes of the 

 plains. The shyness of the Bison renders it difficult to shoot. Two, 

 however, were killed in one afternoon in the Tangall range of mountains 

 between Pike's Peak and the South Park. The following story from the 

 pages of General Dodge will give a good idea of the haunts and habits 

 of this animal : 



" One of my friends determined on the possession of a bison's head, 

 and, hiring a guide, plunged into the mountain wilds that separate the 

 Middle from the South Park. After several days, fresh tracks were dis- 

 covered. The sportsmen started on foot on the trail ; for all that day 

 they toiled and scrambled with the utmost caution, now up, now down, 

 through deep and narrow gorges and pine thickets, over bare and rocky 

 crags. Next morning they pushed on, and when both were well-nigh 

 disheartened, their route was intercepted by a precipice. Looking over, 

 they descried on a projecting ledge several hundred feet below, a herd 

 of twenty bison lying down. The ledge was about two hundred feet at 

 widest, about one thousand feet long. Its inner boundary Avas the wall 

 of rock on the top of which they stood ; its outer seemed to be a sheer 

 precipice of at least two hundred feet. This ledge was connected with 

 the slope of the mountain by a narrow neck. My friend selected a mag- 

 nificent head, that of a fine bull, young but full grown, and both fired. 

 At the report, the bisons all ran to the far end of the ledge and plunged 

 over. The precipice was so steep that the hunters could not follow 

 them. At the foot lay a bison. A long, fatiguing detour brought them 

 to the spot, and my friend recognized his bull — his first and last Moun- 

 tain Buffalo. The remainder of the herd were never seen after the grand 

 plunge, down which it is doubtful if even a dog could have followed 

 without risk of life or limb." 



