THE BISON. 383 



"The winter of 1871-2 waa unusually severe on the Arkansas. 

 The ponds and smaller streams to the north were all frozen solid, 

 and the buffaloes were forced to the river for water. Their 

 retreat was to the northward. The Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa 

 Fe Railroad was then in process of construction, and nowhere 

 could the peculiarity of the buffalo, of which I am speaking, be 

 better studied than from its trains. If a herd was on the north 

 side of the track, it would stand stupidly gazing, and without a 

 symptom of alarm, although the locomotive passed within a 

 hundred yards. If on the south side of the track, even though at 

 a distance of one or two miles from it, the passage of a train 

 set the whole herd in the wildest commotion, at full speed, and 

 utterly regardless of the consequences it would make for the track 

 on its line of retreat. If the train happened not to be on its 

 path it crossed the track and stopped satisfied. If the train was 

 in its way, each individual buffalo went at it with the desperation 

 of despair, plunging against or between locomotives and cars, 

 just as its blind madness choosed to direct it. Numbers were 

 killed, but numbers still pressed on, to stop and stare as soon 

 as the obstacle had passed. After having trains thrown ofi" the 

 track twice in one week, conductors learned to have a very 

 decided respect for the idiosyncrasies of the buffalo, and when there 

 was a possibility of striking a herd 'on the rampage' for the north 

 track, the train was slowed up, and sometimes stopped entirely." 



Next to war the American Indians love the chase, and buffalo 

 hunting was not only a necessity with them, but a pleasure. 

 Murphy, in his " Sporting Adventures," states that some tribes 

 still prefer to stalk the buffalo, and use their bows and arrows in 

 preference to fire-arms, which terrifies the herds, and produces a 

 stampede that clears the country of game in a very short time. 

 " Their favourite mode of hunting now, is to make a surround on 

 horseback, and slay right and left until they become weary, and if 

 this drives the buffaloes away, they follow them up as fast as the 

 squaws can prepare the meat and attend to the hides. I have 

 seen some surrounds of the Sioux and Pawnees, and were the 

 scene not made picturesque by the wigwams, the numerous and 

 almost naked warriors, and the bustle and excitement of galloping 



