THE BISON. 379 



to another. As " the old shekarry " writes :— " A mighty impulse 

 seems at once to seize upon countless thousands of these animals, 

 and they serge backwards and forwards — heading north or south- 

 moving along as the waves of the ocean driven by the wind. 



' Reasoning at every step he treads 

 Man yet mistakes his way ; 

 While meaner things, whom instinct leads, 

 Are rarely known to stray.' 



No physical objects stay them on their march; great rivers 

 with overhanging banks and shifting sands, are swum or forded ; 

 deep chasms and earth-rent gulches are crossed ; but still the herd 

 moves on, night and day, like a resistless tide. Hunters may thin 

 their numbers, and prairie-wolves cut off stragglers and such as 

 from fatigue cannot keep up with the herd ; still the van keeps on 

 moving in the one direction, and countless thousands of dusky 

 monsters pass en masse, like a cloud over the land." 



Upon the plains which were the favourite haunts of the animals, 

 a very nutritious species of grass grows in profusion, which is 

 known as " buffalo grass." 'This was of course easily procured 

 during the summer, but when winter covered it up with snow, 

 the animals experienced considerable diflBculty in getting at it ; as 

 long as the snow was not deep, or frozen, they could scrape it away 

 with their feet, but when the crust was hard, they suffered con - 

 siderably from hunger, and in certain seasons they died by 

 hundreds from starvation. 



The migrations of the herds were no doubt partly due to 

 climatic changes, but more probably were influenced by the 

 necessity of obtaining their favourite food. Their northern 

 movements were always more conspicuous and pronounced than 

 their return south through the herds being larger and not so 

 scattered, while the journey south was made by the animals 

 gradually working their way back in a less marked manner. 

 Many trappers of the plains and nearly all the Indian tribes denied 

 the fact that the buffaloes eyer did return south. The red-man 

 accounted for their yearly appearance by saying that they were 

 produced in myriads under the ground, and in the spring came 

 out of a hole or cavern in the side of a huge mountain away to the 



