MONABCns IN EXILE 123 



agerie stood in the square of the Capitol. Among the 

 other beasts in it was one called by an early writer a 

 ' Mexican Bull, resembling many animals combined in 

 one, having a humped back like a Camel, a Lion's mane, 

 horns like a Bull, a long tail, and cloven hoofs,' — this 

 beast was the American Buffalo. 



" How he came to be there no one knows, for they 

 were not afterward found to range so far south, but he 

 was probably captured by some of the ^Mexicans on 

 their northward exjDeditions. 



" Between this first Buffalo of the Mexican Men- 

 agerie and the last (which one of you young people 

 may live to see) stretches the history of this tribe that 

 exceeded in numbers any other of the greater beasts of 

 the earth. It reads like some wild legend or impossi- 

 ble fairy tale, yet it is all true and took place in the 

 western half of our own country, and when the west 

 wind blows fiercely around the farm, it has often swept 

 over the very plains that were the Buffalo's kingdom. 

 Whole books have been written, and yet have not told 

 half the tale, which is in a way the history of the kill- 

 ing of all the great American fourfoots as well. 



"The Buffalo's history is in three acts and many 

 scenes. First, the golden days of peace and plenty, 

 the rightful killing for food, with laborious hunting, a 

 fair fight between man and beast. ' Take what ye need 

 to eat,' said Heart of Nature to man and beast alike. 



" Then the white and red men joined in the pursuit ; 

 fleet horses were used in the chase instead of men's feet, 

 bullets killing from afar replaced the arrows shot at close 

 range. Not merely meat to eat or hides for covering, 

 or reasonable trade, but waste and butchery. Skins 



