The Extermination of the American BisonHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
The Extermination of the American Bison
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
American bison; Wildlife conservation -- United States -- Sources
The color of the body and hindquarters of a buffalo is very peculiar,
and almost baffles intelligent description. Audubon calls it "between a
dark umber and liver-shining brown." I once saw a competent artist
experiment with his oil-colors for a quarter of an hour before he
finally struck the combination which exactly matched the side of our
large bull. To my eyes, the color is a pale gray-brown or smoky gray.
The range of individual variation is considerable, some being uniformly
darker than the average type, and others lighter. While the under parts
of most adults are dark brown or blackish brown, others are actually
black. The hair on the body and hinder parts is fine, wavy on the
outside, and woolly underneath, and very dense. Add to this the
thickness of the skin itself, and the combination forms a covering that
is almost impervious to cold.
The entire fore quarter region, _e. g._, the shoulders, the hump, and
the upper part of the neck, is covered with a luxuriant growth of pale
yellow hair (Naples yellow + yellow ocher), which stands straight out in
a dense mass, disposed in handsome tufts. The hair is somewhat woolly in
its nature, and the ends are as even as if the whole mass had lately
been gone over with shears and carefully clipped. This hair is 4 inches
in length. As the living animal moved his head from side to side, the
hair parted in great vertical furrows, so deep that the skin itself
seemed almost in sight. As before remarked, to comb this hair would
utterly destroy its naturalness, and it should never be done under any
circumstances. Standing as it does between the darker hair of the body
on one side and the almost black mass of the head on the other, this
light area is rendered doubly striking and conspicuous by contrast. It
not only covers the shoulders, but extends back upon the thorax, where
it abruptly terminates on a line corresponding to the sixth rib.
From the shoulder-joint downward, the color shades gradually into a dark
brown until at the knee it becomes quite black. The huge fore-arm is
lost in a thick mass of long, coarse, and rather straight hair 10 inches
in length. This growth stops abruptly at the knee, but it hangs within 6
inches of the hoof. The front side of this mass is blackish brown, but
it rapidly shades backward and downward into jet-black.
The hair on the top of the head lies in a dense, matted mass, forming a
perfect crown of rich brown (burnt sienna) locks, 16 inches in length,
hanging over the eyes, almost enveloping both horns, and spreading back
in rich, dark masses upon the light-colored neck.
On the cheeks the hair is of the same blackish brown color, but
comparatively short, and lies in beautiful waves. On the bridge of the
nose the hair is about 6 inches in length and stands out in a thick,
uniform, very curly mass, which always looks as if it had just been
carefully combed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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