ictor was immediately recognized, and
kept his authority until some new aspirant overcame him, or he became
superannuated and was driven out of the herd to meet his inevitable
fate, a prey to those ghouls of the desert, the gray wolves.

In the event of a stampede, every animal of the separate, yet
consolidated, herds rushed off together, as if they had all gone mad at
once; for the buffalo, like the Texas steer, mule, or domestic
horse, stampedes on the slightest provocation; frequently without any
assignable cause. The simplest affair, sometimes, will start the whole
herd; a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, a shadow of
one of themselves or that of a passing cloud, is sufficient to make them
run for miles as if a real and dangerous enemy were at their heels.

Like an army, a herd of buffaloes put out vedettes to give the alarm in
case anything beyond the ordinary occurred. These sentinels were always
to be seen in groups of four, five, or even six, at some distance from
the main body. When they perceived something approaching that the herd
should beware of or get away from, they started on a run directly for
the centre of the great mass of their peacefully grazing congeners.
Meanwhile, the young bulls were on duty as sentinels on the edge of
the main herd watching the vedettes; the moment the latter made for the
centre, the former raised their heads, and in the peculiar manner of
their species gazed all around and sniffed the air as if they could
smell both the direction and source of the impending danger. Should
there be something which their instinct told them to guard against, the
leader took his position in front, the cows and calves crowded in the
centre, while the rest of the males gathered on the flanks and in the
rear, indicating a gallantry that might be emulated at times by the
genus homo.

Generally buffalo went to their drinking-places but once a day, and that
late in the afternoon. Then they ambled along, following each other in
single file, which accounts for the many trails on the plains, always
ending at some stream or lake. They frequently travelled twenty or
thirty miles for water, so the trails leading to it were often worn to
the depth of a foot or more.

That curious depression so frequently seen on the great plains, called
a buffalo-wallow, is caused in this wise: The huge animals paw and lick
the salty, alkaline earth, and when once the sod is broken the loose
dirt drifts aw