OF WILD ANIMALS 145 



until he reached the bottom of the biggest and most tortuous 

 coulee in his neighborhood. And then what? Instead of 

 coming to rest in a reposeful little valley a hundred feet wide, 

 he chose the most rugged branch he could find, the one with 

 the steepest and highest banks, and up that dry bed, with 

 many a twist and turn, he painfully limped his way. At last 

 he found himself in a snug and safe ditch, precisely like a front 

 line trench seven feet wide, with perpendicular walls and 

 zig-zagging so persistently that the de'il himself could not find 

 him save by following him up to close quarters, and landing 

 upon his horns. There, without food or water, the wounded 

 animal would stand for many days, — in fact, until hunger 

 would force him back to the valley's crop of grass. His wild 

 remedy was to keep still, and give that broken leg its chance to 

 knit and grow strong. 



I have seen in buffalo skeletons healed bone fractures that 

 filled us with wonder. One case that we shot was a big and 

 heavy bull whose hip socket had been utterly smashed, femur 

 head and all, by a heavy rifle ball; but the bull had escaped in 

 spite of his wound, and he had nursed it until it had healed 

 in good working order. We can testify that he could run as 

 well as any of the bisons in his bunch. 



Of course young bisons can be tamed, and to a certain 

 extent educated. "Buffalo" Jones broke a pair of two-year- 

 old bulls to work under a yoke, and puU a light wagon. He 

 tried them with bridles and bits, but the buffaloes refused to 

 work with them. With tight-fitting halters, and the exercise 

 of much muscle, he was able for a time to make them "gee" 

 and "haw." But not for long. When they outgrew his ability 

 in free-hand drawing, he rigged an upright windlass on each 

 side of his wagon-box, and firmly attached a line to each. 

 When the team was desired to "gee," he deftly wound up the 

 right line on its windlass, and vice versa for "haw." 



But even this did not last a great while. The motor 

 control was more tentative than absolute. Once while driving 



