TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 71 
affect the most rugged and barren country, and they are perhaps more plentiful in the Bad Lands 
of the Judith and Missouri Rivers than anywhere else. 
On the Cone Butte and Sweet Grass Mountains, which are covered for half their height with a 
talus of platter-like blocks of trachyte, the sheep in their passage up and down the sides of the hills 
have worn regular paths among and over the loose blocks, and it is only by following these paths 
that the ascent can be made on the east and south. 
BOVID. 
40. BOS AMERICANUS, Gmelin. 
BUFFALO; BISON. 
No Buffalo were seen while we were ascending the Missouri River until just before we reached 
Carroll. From that place westward, they were occasionally observed until we reached the Judith 
Gap, although, owing to the presence inthe region through which we were passing of the Sioux and 
Crows, they were not abundant. On our return march, we saw great numbers of them before 
reaching the Gap, but none afterward until we were quite near the Missouri. 
The statement that the herds of bulls that are everywhere met with during the autumn consist 
of individuals driven away from the main herd by their stronger rivals may, I think, be doubted 
It is said that these assemblages are not seen in spring before the rutting-season. It seems more 
probable that during the late summer and-autumn, many of the old and strong bulls exhausted by the 
fatigues of the rutting-season, thin in flesh, and generally run down, are unable to keep up with the 
active and constantly-moving herd of cows and young animals, and devote all their energies to 
recruiting for the winter. Tarly in the spring, they rejoin the herd, and remain with it until the end 
of July. 
During the past autumn the Buffalo have proceeded down the Missouri River much farther 
than is usual. They have been quite numerous a few miles north of Fort Berthold, Dakota, and a 
few stragglers have been seen near Painted Woods, about twenty-five miles above Bismarck. 
The so-called *“* Mountain Buffalo” was abundant in the Yellowstone Park. 
