[163] _Mustang_ would most naturally seem a corruption of the Spanish adjective _mostrenco_ (without owner), but the Mexicans call wild horses _mesteñas_, a synonyme in one of its senses with _mostrenco_.--GREGG.
[164] The bulls usually shed in the spring, from the shoulders back, but not in front, which imparts to them quite a lion-like appearance.--GREGG.
[165] It has often been remarked by travellers, that however much buffalo meat one may eat, no inconvenience is ever suffered from it.--GREGG.
[166] Often, but it would seem improperly, called 'buffalo _robes_.'--GREGG.
[167] Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville was born in France in 1796. At an early age he came to America with his mother, where he was cared for by Thomas Paine, who secured for him a cadetship in the United States Military Academy, from which he was graduated in 1819, when he entered the army. During Lafayette's visit of 1825, Bonneville was detailed as his aide. He was later stationed on the Western frontier, and obtaining leave of absence (1831) planned an extensive fur-trading and exploring expedition. This is the journey graphically described by Washington Irving, in _Rocky Mountains, or Scenes, Incidents and Adventures in the far West, digested from the journal of B. L. E. Bonneville of the army of the United States_ (Phila., 1837). Bonneville was absent from civilization for three years (1832-35), and wandered as far west as the Columbia. His trading venture was but moderately successful, and he returned to army life, participating in both the Seminole and Mexican wars, in the latter of which he was severely wounded. During the War of Secession, he was stationed chiefly at frontier posts, being breveted brigadier-general in 1865. He died at Fort Smith in 1878.--ED.
[168] For the Assiniboin consult our volume xiv, p. 275, note 197.--ED.
[169] _Canis latrans_, a distinction to which its noisiness emphatically entitles it. Clavigero says of this animal: "El _coyotl_, _ó coyote_, como dicen los Españoles, es una fiera semejante al lobo en la voracidad, á la zorra en la astucia, al perro en la forma, y en otras propiedades al _adive_, ó _chacal_; por lo que algunos escritores Megicanos lo han numerado entre varias de aquellas especias; pero es indudable que se diferencia de todas ellas," etc.--_Hist. Ant. de Még. Tom. I. p. 40._