WESTERN WILD SPORTS. 
155 
mals which live together. They have been seen in herds of 
three, four, and five thousand, blackening the plains as far as 
the eye could view. 
“ Some travellers are of opinion that they have seen as many as 
eight or ten thousand in a herd, but this is merely a conjecture. 
At night it is impossible for a person to sleep near them who 
is unaccustomed to their noise, which from the incessant lowing 
and roaring of the bulls, is said very much to resemble distant 
thunder. Although frequent battles take place between the bulls, 
as among domestic cattle, the habits of the Bison are peaceful 
and inoffensive, seldom or never offering to attack man or other 
animals, unless outraged in the first instance. They sometimes, 
when wounded, turn on the aggressor; but it is only in the 
bulling season when any danger is to be apprehended from the 
ferocity and strength of the Bison bull. At all other times, 
whether wounded or not, their efforts are exclusively directed 
towards effecting their escape from their pursuers, and at this 
time it does not appear that their rage is provoked particularly 
by an attack on themselves, but their usual intrepidity is indis¬ 
criminately directed against all suspicious objects. 
“We shall conclude this account of the Bison, by introducing 
the remarks of John E. Calhoun, Esq.,* relative to the extent of 
country over which this animal formerly roved, and which it at 
present inhabits. 
“ The Buffalo was formerly found throughout the whole terri¬ 
tory of the United States, with the exception of that part which 
lies east of the Hudson’s River and Lake Champlain, and of 
narrow strips of coast on the Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico. 
These were swampy, and had probably low thick woods. 
“ That it did not exist on the Atlantic coast, is rendered pro¬ 
bable from the circumstance, that all the early winters whom 
Mr. Calhoun has consulted on the subject, and they are nume¬ 
rous, do not mention them as existing there, but further back. 
Thomas Morton, one of the first settlers of New England, says, 
* Long’s Expedition to the sources of the St. Peter’s River, ii., p. 28. 
