Large herds of bisons were seen in every direction; but as we had already killed a deer, and were supplied with meat enough for the day, none of the party were allowed to go in pursuit of them. Prickly pears became more and more abundant as we ascended the river; and here they occurred in such extensive patches as considerably to retard our progress, it being wholly impracticable to urge our horses across them. The cactus ferox is the most common, and, indeed, the only species which is of frequent occurrence. It has been stated by a traveller to the Upper Missouri,[108] that the antelope, which inhabits the extensive plains of that river and its tributaries, finds means to make this plant, notwithstanding its terrific armature of thorns, subservient to its necessities, "by cutting it up with his hoofs." We were able to discover no confirmation of this statement; it may, however, be applicable to some plains more arid and sterile than any we have passed, where the antelopes may be driven by necessity to the use of this hard expedient.
[108] Nuttall's Genera of North American Plants, vol. i. p. 296.—JAMES.
On the following day we saw immense herds of bisons, blackening the whole surface of the country through which we passed. At this time they were in their summer coat. From the shoulders backwards, all the hinder parts of the animal are covered with a growth of very short and fine hair, as smooth and soft to the touch as a piece of velvet. The tail is very short, and tufted at the end, and its services, as a fly-brush, are confined to a very limited surface.
The fore parts of the body are covered with long shaggy hair, descending in a tuft behind the knee, in a distinct beard beneath the lower jaw, rising in a dense mass on the top of his head as high as the tip of the horns, matted and curled on his front so { 157} thickly as to deaden the force of the rifle-ball, which rebounds from the forehead, or lodges in the hair, causing the animal only to shake his head as he bounds heavily onward. The head is so large and ponderous, in proportion to the size of the body, that the supporting muscles, which greatly enlarge the neck, form over the shoulders, where they are imbedded on each side of elongated vertebral processes, distinguished by the name of hump ribs, a very considerable elevation called the hump, which is of an oblong form, diminishing in height as it recedes, so as to give considerable obliquity to the line of the back. The eye is small, black, and piercing; the horns, which are black, and remarkably robust at base, curve outward and upward, tapering rapidly to the tip. The profile of the face is somewhat convexly curved; and the superior lip, on each side, papillous within, is dilated and extended downward, so as to give a very oblique appearance to the lateral rictus, or gape of the mouth, considerably resembling in this respect the ancient architectural bas-reliefs representing the heads of the ox. The physiognomy is menacing and ferocious, and the whole aspect of the animal is sufficiently formidable to influence the spectator who is, for the first time, placed near him in his native wilds, with certain feelings which indicate the propriety of immediate attention to personal safety.