i70 Expedition to the 



gress, it being wholly impracticable to urge our horses across 

 them. The Cactus ferox is the most common, and, indeed, 

 the only species which is of frequent occurrence. It has 

 been stated by a traveller to the upper Missouri,* that the 

 antelope, which inhabits the extensive plains of that river and 

 its tributaries, finds means to make this plant, notwithstand- 

 ing its terrific armature of thorns, subservient to its necessi- 

 ties, " by cutting it up with his hoofs." We were able to dis- 

 cover no confirmation of this statement; it may, however, be 

 applicable to some plains, more arid and sterile than any we 

 have passed, where the antelopes may be driven by neces- 

 sity to the use of this hard expedient. 



On the following day, we saw immense herds of bisons, 

 blackening the whole surface of the country through which 

 we passed. At this time they were in their summer coat. 

 From the shoulders backward, all the hinder parts of the 

 animal are covered with a growth of very short and fine hair, 

 as smooth and soft to the touch as a piece of velvet. The 

 tail is verv short and tufted at the end, and its services, as a 

 fly-brush, are confined to a very limited surface. 



The fore parts of the bod) are covered with long shaggy 

 hair, descending in a tuft behind the knee, in a distinct 

 beard beneath the lower jaw, rising in a dense mass on the 

 top of his head as high as the tip of the horns, matted and 

 curled on his front so thickly as to deaden the force of the 

 rifle-ball, which rebounds from the forehead or lodges in 

 the hair, causing the animal only to shake his head as he 

 bounds heavily onward. The head is so large and ponde- 

 rous, in proportion to the size of the body, th;:t the support- 

 ing muscles, which greatly enlarge the neck, form over the 

 shoulders, where they are imbedded on each side of elongat- 

 ed vertebral processes distinguished by the name of hump 

 ribs, a very considerable elevation called the hump, which 

 is of an oblong form, diminishing in height as it recedes, so 

 as to give considerable obliquity to the line of the back. 

 * Nuttall's Genera of North American plants, voli. p. 296. 



*£** 



