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The buffalo-wallows retain usually a great quantity of water, and they have often saved the lives of whole companies of cavalry, both men and horses. There was, however, a stranger and more wonderful spectacle to be seen every recurring spring during the reign of the buffalo, soon after the grass had started.
The watering places were known as "buffalo-wallows," for they had been made by the buffalos in wallowing. These basins were usually kept filled with water by the rains. Some of the "wallows," or "ponds," were rather deep, and were treacherous because of sudden "drop-offs"; but they were usually shallow, and it was generally safe for the children to play along the edge.
"Buffalo-wallows!" echoed Francois; "what are they?" "Why, have you never heard of them, Frank?" asked Basil. "Places where the buffalo wallow and tumble like horses and farm-cattle." "Oh, that's it," said Francois; "but what do they do it for?" "Well, that I don't know. Perhaps Luce can tell."
Our hunters did not follow this road far, as there was no certainty that it would bring them to where the animals then were. They crossed over, and kept on for the butte. "Voila!" cried Francois, "what are these?" Francois pointed to several circular hollows that appeared in the prairie before them. "Buffalo-wallows, I declare!" said Basil: "some of them are quite fresh too!"
I, too, had observed apparently similar phenomena along icy streams in Sikkim, and around muddy buffalo-wallows in steaming Malay jungles. And I can recall many years ago, leaning far out of a New England buggy to watch clouds of little sulphurs flutter up from puddles beneath the creaking wheels.
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