As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
The American Bison or Buffalo, is one of the namesakes of America, and yet Americans know absolutely nothing about these wild creatures.
I actually was a on a buffalo hunt, which was as all things buffalo was just a shoot. It involved two rogue cows who refused to stay in the fence and were herded to be shot by a sort of volkswagon dune buggy.
The one was shot a Remington 7 mm magnum and the other a 30.06. Shot placement matters in all shots, including brains, but the 7mm killed instantly and the 06 cow was wiggling some.
The other was an old bull, shot by a lunatic gunslinger, who was blasting things with a variety of weapons from I think an old Winchester, something else and a pistol by my person.
I asked my dad at that the time what the hell that was all about and dad answered, "That is so he can say he shot a buffalo with a pistol".
I like buffalo meat, but was given some old bull which like all things old and bullish too long in the hide, tasted like buffalo gut.
In any event, when I become donated to in wealth, I am going to get me some buffalo guns and go blast some two year old for eating and hide, and enjoy it all.
I also hope to get some buffalo when donated to in large sum, so I can have some of these creature about to study and enjoy in safety.
My reason for bringing all of this nostalgia up is it was Libby Custer who gave the best description of what wild buffalo really were like in habit, and that type of thing should be known, so here it is.
Many combats occurred among the bulls of the herd because two selected the same cow for a wife, and the painter who could have fixed these monstera on his canvas while they were raging with the fierceness of rivalry would have made his mark. The heads bent forward to the ground in attempts to gore each other, the burning eyeballs, the desperate plunges which they made, apparently oblivious of their great weight, the turf torn with their maddened hoofs, the air thick with dust and bits of looseued sod, the temporary retreats of the contestants only to enable them to rush at one another with renewed force, afforded the most magnificent example of jealous fury.
Meanwhile the cow over which this war was waged quietly browsed near by. When domestic life began, the winner of the hard-fought battle became a very good defender of his family. In the great herds the cows were always in the centre, and a cordon of bulls surrounded them and their young, while outside them all were the pickets, which kept watch, and whose warnings were heeded at once if danger threatened.
The circles, perhaps fifteen feet in circumference, that I saw for the first time, were one of the mysteries of that strange land. When the officers told me that the rut was made by the buffalo mother's walking round and round to protect her newly bom and sleeping calf from the-wolves at night, I listened only to smile incredulously, with the look peculiar to an innocent who desires to convince the narrator of fables that he has met one person of superior intaition who cannot be gulled. I had been so often " guyed " with ridiculous stories, of which this last seemed tlie crowning example, that I did not believe the tale. In time,
however, I found that it was true, and I never came across these pathetic circles in our rides or in hunting without a sentiment of deepest sympathy for the anxious mother whose vigilance kept up the ceaseless tramp during the long night. The calf is born with wonderful strength and vitality, and soon does remarkable feats in marching. He is quite a big fellow in a year, but keeps on growing until he is seven.
Elizabeth Bacon Custer. Following the Guidon
That is certainly the best description of the American Buffalo ever put forward, and readers should know the intricacies of this animal, which mirrors a great deal of the Muskox.
I like knowing things as this as it prepares me in the wealth of knowledge, and it certainly wins out over other stupid conversation subjects like who is winning at some professional sport.
With that we close on the buffalo home where they roamed, in how they gave place to other creatures.
"At first the bleaching bones of thousands of buffaloes were rather a melancholy sight to me, but I soon became as much accustomed to the ghastly sockets of an upturned skull as the field-mouse which ran in and out either orifice with food for her nest of little ones inside."
Elizabeth Bacon Custer. Following the Guidon
agtG
