ADRIFT ON THE ICE. 22 
the hump, the shortness of their horns, aud the 
quantity of hair about all their fore parts. 
When congregated together in fair weather, 
calm or nearly so, the bellowing of a large herd 
(which sometimes contains a thousand) may be 
heard at the extraordinary distance of ten miles 
at least, 
In winter, when the ice has become strong 
‘enough to bear the weight of many tons, buffa 
loes are often drowned in great numbers, for. 
they are in the habit of crossing rivers on the 
ice, and should any alarm occur, rush in a dense 
crowd to one place; the ice gives way beneath 
the pressure of hundreds of these huge animals, 
they are precipitated into the water, and if it is 
deep enough to reach over their backs, soon 
perish. Should the water, however, be shallow, 
they scuffle through the broken and breaking 
ice, in the greatest disorder, to the shore. 
From time to time small herds, crossing rivers 
on the ice in the spring, are set adrift in con- 
sequence of the sudden breaking of the ice after 
a rise in the river. They have been seen floating 
on such occasions in groups of three, four, and 
sometimes eight or ten together, although on 
separate cakes of ice. A few stragglers have 
been known to reach the shore in an almost ex- 
hausted state, but the majority perish from cold 
. P 
