THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 429 



buffalo used to be very fond of this grass, and that " wherever this grass 

 grew in abundance there were the best hunting-grounds for the bison." 

 It appears that Aristida purpurea is not sufficiently abundant elsewhere 

 in the Northwest to make it an i nportant food for stock ; but Dr. Vesey 

 declares that it is "abundant on the plains of Kansas, New Mexico, 

 and Texas." 



Kceleria cristata, — Very generally distributed from Texas and New 

 Mexico to the British Possessions ; sand hills and arid soils; mountains, 

 up to 8,000 feet. 



Poa tenuifolia (blue-grass of the plains and mountains). — A valuable 

 "bunch-grass," widely distributed throughout the great pasture region; 

 grows in all sorts of soils and situations; common in the Yellowstone 

 Park. 



Festuca scabrella (bunch-grass). — One of the most valuable grasses of 

 Montana and the Northwest generally; often called the "great bunch- 

 grass." It furnishes excellent food for horses and cattle, and is so tall 

 it is cut in large quantities for hay. This is the prevailing species on 

 the foot-hills and mountains generally, up to an altitude of 7,000 feet, 

 where it is succeeded by Festuca ovina. 



Andropogon provincialis (blue-stem). — An important species, extend- 

 ing from eastern Kansas and Nebraska to the foot-hills of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and from Northern Texas to the Saskatchewan ; common in 

 Montana on alkali flats and bottom lands generally. This and the pre- 

 ceding species were of great value to the buffalo in winter, when the 

 shorter grasses were covered with snow. 



Andropogon scoparias (bunch grass; broom sedge; wood-grass). — Sim- 

 ilar to the preceding in distribution and value, but not nearly so tall. 



None of the buffalo- grasses are fouud in the mountains. In the 

 mountain regions which have been visited by the buffalo and in the 

 Yellowstone Park, where to-day the only herd remaining in a state of 

 nature is to be found (though not by the man with a gun), the following 

 are the grasses which form all but a small proportion of the ruminant 

 food: Kceleria cristata; Poa tenuifolia (Western blue-grass); Stipa 

 mridida (feather-grass); Stipa comata; Agropyrum diver gens; Agro- 

 pyrum caninum. 



When pressed by hunger, the buffalo used to browse on certain species 

 of sage-brush, particularly Atriplex canescens of the Southwest. But he 

 was discriminating in the matter of diet, and as far as can be ascer- 

 tained he was never known to eat the famous and much-dreaded "loco" 

 weed (Astragalus molissimus), which to ruminant animals is a veritable 

 drug of madness. Domestic cattle and horses often eat this plant where 

 it is abundant, and become demented in consequence. 



VII. Mental Capacity and Disposition. 



(1) Reasoning from cause to effect. — The buffalo of the past was an 

 animal of a rather low order of intelligence, and his dullness of intel- 



