590 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
through some cause grown bald on its back, or as’ if some prairie fire had 
burned away the middle of a hairy spread, or some new fashion in the 
tonsorial art had brought into vogue an inverted pompadour for animals. 
The yak is hunted for its flesh, hair and hide, and the sport has all the 
excitement of danger, for when excited the bulls are very ferocious. When a 
herd is attacked the calves are gathered together while the bulls and cows 
form a solid square around them. But the yak is quite as necessary and 
useful as a domestic animal, and readily adjusts itself to the laborious ser¬ 
vice of man’s daily life. It supplies the family with a plentiful quantity 
and an excellent quality of pure milk; it is strong and enduring as a beast 
of burden; and it is able to forage for its own subsistence and to be satisfied 
with “plain liv¬ 
ing” even though 
it may not indulge 
in “high think¬ 
ing.” There are 
castes among yaks } 
so that while the 
beautiful, white- 
trimmed patrician 
holds his head 
high in air, the 
common or plough 
yak recognizes the 
lack of gorgeous 
apparel and great 
stature, and in 
humility walks 
with head bent 
down. 
There are 
two species of the 
African buffalo, 
the Short-Horn 
Buffalo (Bubalus 
buffelus ), and the 
Buffalo of Caf- 
. , fraria {Bubalus 
S-i * ormer brown in its coloring, the latter black. The Asiatic 
Bunalo {Bos bubalus) is the type most commonly known to all but African 
travelers. .cr celebrated Livingstone describes methods of hunting the 
African buffalo, which are even more wantonly destructive than the unsports- 
man-like. warfare which has rendered almost extinct the American bison. 
The natives are in the habit of digging covered pits, and then beating up 
the country for miles around to drive first into corrals, and then into the 
pits, everything that has life, and which does not succeed in breaking through 
and making its escape. These corrals open into deep pits, in which are planted 
sharpened stakes, upon which the animals impale themselves. The method of 
hunting among the Chinese emperors omits the pitfalls, but is equally secure 
GORED BY A WOUNDED BUFFALO. 
