Sir John Richardson also confirms Sir John Franklin in the assertion that the most generally practised plan of shooting the Bisons is by crawling towards them from the leeward, and that in favourable places great numbers are taken in pounds.
Though the risk of the chase be considerable the reward is great for there are few animals that minister more largely to the wants and even to the comforts of man than the American Bison. The horns are converted into the hide, which, according to Catesby, is too heavy for the strongest man to lift from the ground, is very valuable, and is used for a variety of purposes. Purchas relates that in old times the Indians made the best of targets of it ; and Catesby says that they make their winter moccassins of it also, but that, being too heavy for clothing, it is not often put to that use. Sir John Richardson informs us that the wool has been manufactured in England into a remarkably fine and beautiful cloth ; and that in the colony of Osnaboyna, on the Red River, a warm and durable coarse cloth is formed of it. Catlin says that "there are by a fair calculation more than 300,000 Indians who are now subsisting on the flesh of the buffIdoes, and by these animals supplied with all the luxuries of life which they desire, as they know of none others." "The flesh of a bison in good condition," says the author last quoted, "is very juicy and well-flavoured, much resembling that of well-fed beef." Others describe it as bearing the same relation to common beef that venison bears to mutton. The tongue, when well cured, is said to eurpaas that of the common ox as a relish. All concur in the praises of the delicious hump, rich, savoury, and tender. This is the fleshy part that covers the long spinal's processes of the anterior dorsal vertebrie, and is called ' boa' by the Canadian voyagers, and ' wig' by the Orkney men in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, according to Sir John Richardson, who says that much of the pemmican used by the voyagers attached to the fur companies is made of bison meat, procured at their posts on the Red River and Saskatchewan : ho adds, that one bison cow in good condition furnishes dried meat and fat enough to make a bag of pemmican weighing 90 lbs.
The fat bulls yield a great quantity of tallow ; and Du Prato, records that 150 lbs. have been procured from a single beast. Pennant says that these over-fed animals usually become the prey of wolves, for, by reason of their great unwieldiness, they cannot keep up with the herd; and, on the authority of Du Pratt gives the following account of their sagacity in defending themselves against the atacks of their fierce persecutors :—" When they scent the approach of a drove of those ravenous creatures, the herd flings itself into the form of a circle : the weakest keep in the middle, the strongest are ranged on the outside, presenting to the enemy an impenetrable front of horns : should they be taken by surprise, and have recourse to flight, numbers of the fattest or the weakest are sure to perish." Sir John Richardson however, speaking of the numerous wolves on the sandy plains which, lying to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains, extend from the sources of the Peace and Saskatchewan rivers towards the Missouri, says that there bends of them hang on the skirts of the buffalo herds, and prey upon the sick and straggling calves, but that they do not, under ordinary circumstances, venture to attack the full-grown animal. As a proof of this, he adds, that the hunters informed him that they often saw wolves walking through a herd of bulls without exciting the least alarm, and that the marksmen, when they crawl towards n bison for the purpose of shooting it, occa sionally wear a cap with two ears in imitation of the head of a wolf, knowing from experience that they will be suffered to approach nearer in that guise.
The Grisly Bear is one of the most formidable enemies of the American Bison ; and the strongest bull goes down before him. [BEAR.
The Indian is too wild in his habits to submit to the fetters which an attempt to domesticate animals would impose upon his liberty; a child of the wilderness, he depends on his bow or his rifle for his sub sistence, and wanders free. It is not therefore surprising that no attempt should have been made by the aboriginal inhabitants to reduce the Bison to obedience. Cateaby however says that these
animals have been known to breed with tame cattle that were become wild, but that the calves being eo too were neglected, " and though," ho continues, "it is the general opinion that if reclaiming these animals were not impracticable (of which no trial has been made), to mix the breed with tame cattle would much improve the breed, yet nobody has had the curiosity nor have given themselves any trouble about it." Pennant states that the experiment has been made, and that it has failed, for he thus writes in his ' Arctic Zoology :'— " Attempts have been made to tame and domesticate the wild bison, by catching the calves and bringing them up with the common kind, in hopes of improving the breed. It has not yet been found to answer : notwithstanding they had tho appearance for a time of having lost their savage nature, yet they always grew impatient of restraint, and, by reason of their great strength, would break down the strongest inelosure, and entice the tame cattle into the corn-fields. They have been known to engender together and to breed ; but I cannot learn whether the species was meliorated by the intercourse." A very fine American Bison bull was shown some years ago in this country as the 'llonaosnis,' and under that name found its way into the epilogue of the Westminster Play as one of the wonders of the day. It was afterwards purchased by the Zoological Society of London ; but it had been enfeebled by confinement and disease, amid died 80011 after the Society became possessed of it The Hudson's Bay Company 'implied its place by presenting a young cow in 1829, which is still alive In the Gardens, Regent's l'ark (July, 1853.) (Owen, British Fossil .Mammals and Birds ; Delineation. of the ac-Tribe ; Cuvier, Ossemens Foaailia ; A. White, Popular history of Jlammalia ; Proceedings of Zoological Society.) Rl'STON, a genus of ilnotfr, belonging to the family Geometridas The principal distinguishing characters of this genus are as follows :— Palm short and three-jointed ; anteniee rather long, and distinctly pectinated in the males, each joint being furnished with a ciliated branch, and these branches longest on the central joints (in the females these branches are wanting, or nearly so); body thick; wings present in both sexes, not very thickly covered with scales, and hence slightly transparent, especially in the females. The larva has ten legs, and is elongate, cylindrical, and tuberculated, and has the head more or low notched in front; it &sonnies the pupa state underground at the roots of trees.
There appearo to be an analogical resemblance between thole moths and the their lame showing that they are not other wise allied. The imago state of the species however may be dis tinguished by the different texture of the wings, and structure of the entennac.
Three species of this genus have been discovered in this country :— Biston prodromaria, the Oak-Beauty; B. bet ularius, the Pepper-Moth ; and B. hirtarius, the Brindled Beauty. The first of these has the antennae bipectinated to the apex, and the last two have the antenna simple nt the apex in the males.
B. prodromaria has the wings of an ash-colour, or approaching to white, finely sprinkled with black : each of the upper wings has two transverse bent faseime of a brown colour, more or lea. margined with black, and the under wings have one fascia of the same description. When the wings are expanded it measures from an inch and a half to two inches in width.
The caterpillar feeds upon the oak, poplar, &c. The moth is rare, but is found in the month of March in the trunks of oak trees in the neighbourhood of London, and elsewhere.
B. bet ularius has received the name of Pepper-Moth from its being of a white colour, and, ns it were, peppered with black almost uniformly over the wings.
This moth is about the same size as the last, and is not uncommon in the month of June in woods near London, and in other parts. Its caterpillar feeds upon the oak, willow, poplar, elm, &c.
B. hirtarius is of a brown colour, dotted with gray, with three or four transverse black bent lines on each wing, and a whitish fascia near the hinder margin. It is common among poplar and lime-trees, and is about an inch and three-quarters in expanse. in the females the wings have a greenish hue.