March 8, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
295 
Buffalo as Beast of Burden. 
The pictures and reports of the war in the 
Balkans have brought into prominence a quad¬ 
ruped which, though well knowm as a domestic 
animal in the East, is very unfamiliar to Western 
eyes—the buffalo. If mentioned at all, this beast is 
generally thought of as a savage brute, but in the 
war area we find him, says the London Stand¬ 
ard, doing duty as a transport animal equally 
with the familiar ox, from which he is easily 
distinguished in the illustrations by his low set 
downcurving horns and muzzle carried almost 
straight forward. , , 
People who have to travel by buffalo cart 
are to be pitied, for the buffalo is the slowest 
of all beasts of draught. It is his great strength 
that gives him the advantage over the ox. The 
load that a single yoke of buffaloes will pull is 
something astounding, and in India they are al¬ 
ways given the kind of load which is assigned 
to dray horses here, ordinary horse work—ex¬ 
cept passenger traffic—being there performed by 
the humped oxen known over here as zebus. 
India, indeed, is the native home of the buf¬ 
falo, and it still exists there as a wild animal. 
Very wild indeed it is, too, and an old bull is 
very apt to attack unprovoked, contrary to the 
usual custom of almost all wild animals. Even 
its tame descendants retain plenty of spirit. 
When in a herd they do not fear the tiger, and 
a recognized method of getting “stripes” to bolt 
when he has taken cover is to drive in a herd 
of buffaloes to rout him out, which they -wdll 
do to a certainty if they get on his scent. 
Even tame buffaloes can make themselves 
very unpleasant to people they do not know, and 
they are not at all safe for a European to ap¬ 
proach in India, but—and here the more attrac¬ 
tive side of their character comes out—they dis¬ 
play toward their owners a faithfulness one 
usually associates rather with dogs than with 
cattle. 
The true Indian buffalo is really to a great 
extent an aquatic animal, and when off duty 
likes nothing so much as to lie up_ to its ears 
in water, but, like the duck, it can if necessary 
resign itself to existence without a bath. That 
an animal so nearly naked of skin as it is should 
thrive in so cold a climate as is that of Eastern 
Europe is a remarkable fact of acclimatization. 
Its presence in Italy is less surprising, but 
even there its introduction seems to be merely 
of medieval date. Scientifically the tame buf¬ 
falo is of interest as having, like the ass, varied 
so little from the wild type. Pied buffaloes are 
as rare as pied donkeys, though white and fawn 
colored varieties occur as well as the_ natural 
black. Like the ass also, the buffalo is a de¬ 
spised animal, yet in local utility both beasts may 
surpass their more aristocratic relatives, the 
horse and ox, while in intelligence and force of 
character they are certainly far superior. 
The Amber Industry. 
The business of obtaining amber from the 
ocean has been for long a State monopoly in 
Prussia. The chief center of the industry is 
in the province of eastern Prussia. 
The gathering of the amber goes on 
throughout the year, but it is most profitable 
at the time of the equinoctial storms, says 
Harper’s Weekly, when the winds and the 
waves throw it ashore. After a storm, the 
fishermen drag the beach. They deposit the 
haul upon the strand, where the women and 
children pick out the pieces of amber from 
among the seaweed. The pieces are assorted 
according to size, color and form. , 
The value of a piece of amber is en¬ 
hanced when it bears the inpressions of plant 
or animal substances. The prices of the 
pieces vary from about 13 cents to 75 cents, 
but may reach to $100 or more. The price 
per pound runs from about $1.25 to $7.50. 
A very large piece sometimes attains the 
weight of sixteen or seventeen ounces. The 
color is most commonly the familiar yellow, 
but it may be reddish browm or emerald 
green, or creamy color, and some pieces are 
quite white. The total yield is valued at 
$1,500,000 a year. 
IN GOAT COUNTRY 
YOUR TRIP 
FOR 1913 
SHOULD BE 
MADE TO THE 
IN SHEEP COUNTRY 
CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 
This region affords the largest and best field to 
HUNTERS, ANGLERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, ALPINEERS AND CAMPERS 
RESULTS 
OUTFITTING DEPARTMENT 
The BREWSTER TRANSFER CO., Ltd. 
BANFF, ALBERTA, CAN. 
References: CAN. PAC. RY. CO. R. G. DUN & CO. 
Write us for ful) particulars 
before deciding upon your 
Hunting or Holiday Trip, as 
we are the largest 
OUTFITTERS in AMERICA 
and our guides are the pio¬ 
neers of the Great Northwest. 
Address all 
correspondence to 
Branches at 
LAGGAN 
ALTA 
and 
FIELD, B. C. 
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