Remnants of a Noble Race

Buffalo at Home — Feeding on Plains in Buffalo Park, Alberta Remnants of a Noble Race By Frank C. Steele While the inarch of civilization has brought many mighty and laudable achievements in this West of ours, it has also brought its tragedies. To those who love the earth as created, clothed, and populated of God, these tragedies become more apparent. In viewing this remarkable transformation of an empire from a wild to a civilized state, what more appalling chapter confronts the observer than the passing of the buffalo. Yesterday, as it were, these proud monarchs of the plain roamed in millions over the western prairie lands. Millions! This seems incredible, and yet it is true, according to the best authority available. Today, we look long and eagerly for the buffalo that link— between the old and the new order of things. Surely America has not allowed this noble animal, strong, fearless, beautiful, so typical of its western home, to perish from the earth. We look long, and alas! vainly. The tragedy is too true. In her mad rush for material wealth, America has allowed this magnificent — race to be slaughtered, slaughtered beneath her very eyes. The g^ande;! of her native animals have virtually become extinct. America owes a debt to Canada. Seeing that the buffalo was rapidly disappearing, and with a commendable zeal directed towards its future preservation, the Dominion government, a few years ago, opened negotiations looking to the purchase of the last herd of buffalo in the state of Montana, perhaps the last herd of really wild buffalo on the American continent. These negotiations were successful and, at a great expense, the herd was rounded up and shipped to Alberta, the authorities thinking that this province would be more adapted to them. The buffalo at present are to be found mainly in Buffalo

Feeding the Buffalo. Buffalo Park Park, one-half mile from the town of Wainwright, Alberta. The park follows the Battle river south and east for a distance of eighteen miles, constituting an area of 160 square miles. The park is entirely surrounded by a high, wire fence, and is fireguarded on both sides by a strip of land twenty feet wide. The general appearance of the enclosure is of a rolling and hilly country dotted with numerous small lakes and streams, an ideal home for all wild life. The government statistics show that the buffalo are thriving in their new home. There are now 2,077 living buffalo in the park, and this number is naturally augmented each year. Beholding, for the first time, this herd feeding peacefully over the beautiful expanse of undulating prairie, the present writer was led to exclaim in poetic measures: Rough, rugged creatures, welcome to our land; Feed in our pastures, drink from our fountains sweet; Ever remind us of that West, supremely grand, The West that trembled 'neath your thund'ring feet. The Past is but the treasure-box of Time; From it we draw the light for future years; In yonder remnants, lo! a nation's crime! A lesson, too, though learned in bitter tears. Monarchs of the Plains Raymond, Alberta, Canada