THE BUFFALO, 299 



when standing over the body of my first Buffalo, and 

 noticing the extreme slenderness of the legs just above the 

 hoof, I then and there began to measure each and every one 

 we killed for meat, beside large ones found dead — when 

 they did not smell too badly. I found only one the hind 

 leg of which I failed to span with the middle finger and 

 thumb of one hand, and this one was a dead and swollen 

 animal, killed several days before. The fore leg was a trifle 

 larger, v having a circumference about three-fourths of an 

 inch greater. 



The size and weight of the Buffalo would seem to neces- 

 sitate a leg as strong as steel for the down-hill plunges 

 this animal can safely make. 



The ability of the Buffalo to climb up the most imprac- 

 ticable steeps is noted by Fremont; and that fascinating 

 writer, George Bird Grinnell (" Yo "), who hunted Buffalo 

 with the Pawnee Indians on this same hunting-ground, and 

 during the same year, describing the position occupied by 

 a Buffalo cow on a slight projection of a wall of one of 

 these deep ravines, says: "I shall never understand how 

 that animal reached the position it occupied." 



A word of explanation may here be necessary, in order 

 to show why we were enabled to outrun a flying herd of 

 Buffaloes with a two-horse wagon. 



The Buffalo is, or was, a strange animal, and in some 

 respects closely resembles the pig. One of his peculiarities 

 cropped out on this race. Had there been not more than a 

 dozen animals, they would doubtless have outrun us with 

 ease; but the stupid brutes in the front and center of the 

 herd seemed to lose fear with the consciousness that others 

 were between them and their enemies, and galloped steadily 

 forward without hurry, while the thoroughly frightened 

 ones in the rear, unable to force their way forward through 

 the mass of their fellows, ran around the herd to the front, 

 only to drop quickly into the pace of the leaders and gallop 

 doggedly on, until they once more found themselves in the 

 rear of the procession, ready to repeat the roundabout race 

 again. Leaving the herd, that had fairly gained their free- 



