USES OF THE BISON.

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upon the withers, which sometimes weighs 50 lbs., and, when properly cooked, is said to be delicious. The flesh of the animal is not, however, so palatable as that of the common ox.

On the west wall are five or six fine heads and horns of the Gaur (Bos Gaurus), the head of an Indian cow, fine samples of buffalo horns, and a curious horn curled by disease.

2. BISON.--The Bisons (Bos Bison-Bison Americanus) are easily distinguished by their highly developed hump, giving them an extraordinary height at the withers, and also by the long hair which covers the anterior portions of their bodies.

In North America the name of buffalo has been universally, but inaccurately, given to the bison, and we are hence constrained to speak of it frequently under this misnomer. They bear about as much resemblance to an Eastern buffalo as they do to the zebra or common ox. The general colour, of this animal is a uniform dark brownish dun. The Cape ox is also often spoken of as the buffalo.

Imagination can scarcely realise the numbers of bison which even now are found on the western plains. It is not uncommon to see the prairies covered with them as far as the eye can reach, and travellers have passed through them for days and days in succession, with scarcely any apparent diminution in the mass. Explorers have often given almost incredible accounts of the numbers met with. The late Horace Greeley, writing from the plains, says, "I know a million is a great many, but I am confident we saw that number yesterday. Certainly all we saw could not stand on ten square miles of ground. Often the country for miles on either hand seemed quite black with them Consider that we have traversed more than one hundred miles in width since we first struck them, and that for most of this distance the buffalo has been constantly in sight, and that they continue for some twenty miles farther on-this being the breadth of their present range, which has a length of perhaps a thousand miles, and you have some approach to an idea of their countless millions.

*

*

H

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USES OF THE BISON.

I doubt whether the domesticated horned cattle of the United States equal the numbers, while they must fall considerably short in weight of the wild ones."

The Exploring Expedition of Governor Stevens on the northern route of the Pacific railroad, was frequently arrested for a considerable time by herds of bison, amounting, in some instances, to not less than half a million each. As the expedition rose over the verge of some elevation in the prairie, before them, as far as the eye could reach, stretched an apparently interminable sea of flesh.

It would be supposed that the immense slaughter continuously carried on would have decimated these animals; but, according to recent accounts given by Major Twining in the "Smithsonian Reports," the immense herds are constantly increasing in the northwestern Montana; they merely shift their grazing ground. Three hundred thousand human beings depend for their very lives and for everything--according to their savage notions-worth living for, solely and entirely on the bison. Its flesh is their only meat, and most of them will go a long time hungry rather than eat small game or wildfowl. The skin serves them for coats, beds, and boots, walls for their tents, and tiles for the roof-for saddles, bridles, and lassoes. The bones are converted into saddletrees, into war clubs, whistles, and other musical instruments. Seven trains of railway cars, freighted with buffalo bones, recently arrived in New York to be worked up into button moulds, knife handles, and other uses. Of the horns are made ladles, and spoons, and pins; the sinews serve for strings to bows, and for the attachment to their persons of scalps and such other articles of vertu as fall in the native's way. The hoofs and horns when stewed yield a superior glue, which is largely used in the construction of hunting spears and arrows. The hair of the mane is twisted into ropes and horse halters; the brains even are not wasted, but used in the preparation of buffalo robes, leather thongs, and other articles made from the hide.

BUFFALO ROBES.

The uses of the bison when dead are various.

99

Powder flasks

are made of their horns, and they are used for mounting knives and awls. The skin forms an excellent buff leather, and when dressed with the hair on, serves the Indians for clothes and shoes. "Buffalo robes" are generally the dried and prepared skins divided into two parts. A strip is taken from each half on the back of the skin where the hump was, and the two halves or sides are sewed together with thread made of the sinews of the animal,

and, after much dressing, the robe is ready for market. The number brought into commerce varies, according to the demand, from 60,000 to 100,000, annually. They are much used by the Indians themselves for blankets, clothing, and constructing their lodges or tents. Not above a tenth of those slaughtered furnish a sufficient furry coat to serve as a robe.

The buffalo robe has of late years been as much used in Europe as it is in North America for a warm travelling wrapper; it sells at from £3 to 10, or even higher; and in the cold climates

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of Europe it is similarly employed for sleigh wrappers, cloak and coat linings, &c.

The flesh is a considerable article of food, and the hunch on the shoulders is esteemed a great delicacy. One of the most useful applications of buffalo meat consists in the preparation of pemmican, an article of food of the greatest importance in a northern climate from its portability and nutritious qualities. This is prepared by cutting the lean meat into thin slices, exposing it to the heat of the sun or fire, and when dry pounding it to a powder. It is then mixed with an equal weight of buffalo suet, and stuffed into bladders. Each bison will produce from 50 to 70 lbs. of tallow, but a bull bison, when fat, will frequently yield 150 lbs. weight of tallow, which forms a considerable article of commerce. The hair or wool is spun into gloves, stockings, and gaiters, that are very strong, and look as well as those made of the finest sheep's wool.* The tail, mounted on a wooden stand, ornamented with goose or porcupine quills, is used as a whisk or fly-flapper.

An attempt is being made by a farmer of Massachusetts to domesticate the bison, and having transported several of these wild roamers of the prairies to his stock farm, he intends to try a cross with Jersey, Ayrshire, or Durham cattle.

It is killed in immense numbers by the North American Indians, solely for the tongue, the skin, and the bosses or humps. They have a peculiar method of dressing the skin with the brains of the animal, in which state it is always imported.

3. BUFFALO (Bubalus).-The name buffalo is scientifically restricted to a species of ox found in various parts of India and the Eastern islands, and to a more limited extent in some parts of Europe and Africa. The buffalo is of Indian origin, and was only brought into Italy a little before the sixth century, but has spread over South-eastern Europe and the North of Africa.

* In Case 58 will be found black and grey worsted yarns, spun from the wool of the bison.

USES OF THE BUFFALO.

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In 1870 there were 73,153 head of buffalo in the Hungarian dominion; in Greece, Piedmont, Italy, and Spain, the buffalo is also found and esteemed as an animal of draught. But he must have water to revel in, and hence thrives only in fenny land. The accompanying is a sketch of a European buffalo bull, thus described by Prof. Wrightson: "The colour is completely black, hair and skin, hoofs and horns, all partaking of this sable hue.

The limbs are short and thick, the body massive, the head large, the forehead arched and narrow, the muzzle large and black, horns low placed, triangular at base, furrowed across and directed backwards and downwards, finally turning upwards towards the point. The hair is scattered somewhat thinly over the body of the full-grown animal, although the calves are well covered."

Buffalo milk is an ingredient in the Transylvanian national diet which cannot be dispensed with upon great occasions. It is richer than that yielded by any other animal. In South Hungary and Transylvania no gentleman considers his breakfast