Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/417

 with a sort of horny helmet, with a smooth tip curved upward and inward. Its horns are more horizontal in position than those of the arna, which are sometimes elevated two feet above the frontal bone. It has pendent ears and dewlap, skin with dark, stiff hairs about an inch long, and, though of massive proportions and extremely ferocious, has neither the height nor the activity of its Indian congener.



Both species lack the hump and mane characteristic of the bisons. The Cape buffalo is a native of South Africa; it congregates in immense herds, but the old bulls, which become quite gray, and are often almost destitute of hair, sometimes adopt solitary habits, when they grow very savage, attacking both men and animals in mere wantonness, trampling and kneeling on the carcasses and crushing them with their massy horns and frontlets, until every bone is broken. This animal also delights to wallow in the mire, and when heated by hunting plunges into the first pool, in which he wholly submerges himself, allowing only the extremity of his muzzle to protrude. All travellers dwell on the loud bellow which he utters in the death agony.—There is an Indian wild bull (bos gaunis), little known, which appears to be intermediate between the bison and buffalo. Gen. Hardwicke and Capt. Rogers describe it as a genuine bull, neither bison nor buffalo; but Major Walter Campbell, the author of the “Old Forest Ranger,” who gives a full description of this rare animal, which he calls the jungle roolgha, makes it clearly a bison. From the character of its horns, which resemble those of the Cape buffalo in form, though they have not the horny helmet over the brow, and of its hump, supported by hump ribs, and of its mane, it is presumed that, on further investigation, it will be elevated into a distinct genus. (See .)  '''BUFFALO. I.''' A W. county of Wisconsin, separated on the W. from Minnesota by the Mississippi, and bounded N. W. by Chippewa river, S. E. by Trempeleau Mountain river and Eagle river; area, 650 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 11,123. The La Crosse, Trempeleau, and Prescott railroad is to pass through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 567,164 bushels of wheat, 195,372 of Indian corn, 316,383 of oats, 44,912 of barley, 65,885 of potatoes, 16,477 tons of hay, 264,885 lbs. of butter, and 28,330 of wool. There were 3,028 horses, 3,871 milch cows, 9,443 other cattle, 5,926 sheep, and 6,740 swine. Capital, Alma. II. A S. W. county of Nebraska, bounded S. by Platte river, and intersected by the South branch of Loup fork, Prairie creek, and other branches of the Platte; area, 2,000 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 193. The Union Pacific railroad passes through the S. part. The chief productions in 1870 were 5,400 bushels of Indian corn, 640 of oats, 830 of potatoes, and 490 tons of hay. III. A S. E. county of Dakota, bounded W. by the Missouri river; area, about 750 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 246. The value of farm products was $1,600; of live stock, $3,600. As first organized, it occupied an extensive area, bounded N. by British America, S. W. and W. by the Missouri river, having Montana for a part of its N. W. boundary, and comprising a large portion of the “Plateau du Coteau du Missouri,” and a part of the Miniwakan or Devil's lake. This region is watered by many streams.  BUFFALO, a city, port of entry, and the capital of Erie county, N. Y., at the E. extremity of Lake Erie, at the head of Niagara river, and at the mouth of Buffalo river (formerly called Buffalo creek), in lat. 42° 53′ N., lon. 78° 55′ W., about 265 m. W. of Albany and 293 m. N. W. of New York. The site is a plain, which from a point about 2 m. distant from the lake slopes gently to the water's edge. The uplands com- mand an extensive prospect of the lake and river, and afford beautiful situations for sub- urban residences. The city has a water front of about 2½ m. on the lake, and of the same extent on Niagara river. A portion of the river front is a bold bluff 60 ft. high. Buffalo has one of the finest harbors on the lakes. It is formed by the Buffalo river, a small stream, which is navigable for one mile from its mouth. The entrance is protected by a breakwater which is 1,500 ft. long, upon the S. side of the river. A breakwater has likewise been constructed in Niagara river upon the N. side of Buffalo river, by which a new and capacious harbor has been made. In 1869 the United States government began the construction of a capacious outside harbor by building a breakwater designed to be 4,000 ft. long, fronting the entrance to Buffalo river, at the distance of about half a mile from the shore. Nearly half of the breakwater had been completed in 1872. In addition, there is a large number of slips and basins for the accommodation of shipping and canal boats. The entrance to the harbor and the approaches from the river are defended by a small fortification called Fort Porter, situated on the heights N. of the city.—Buffalo ranks 11th in point, of population among the cities in the United States. The rapid increase of population is shown as