74 



The Ottawa Naturalist. [July 



some living buffalo, and no less than 24 specimens, including 10 

 old bulls, were killed. The wood-buffalo still survive in remoter 

 parts of the North West ; but they are probably not numerous, 

 and are doomed to early extinction with the present opening-up 

 of these distant gold producing areas. 



Observers who crossed the prairies, before the buffalo were 

 nearing extermination, confess that no description can do justice 

 to the impressive spectacle which these bovine monsters presen- 

 ted. Their brown almost black forms scattered over the plains 

 and quietly grazing in untold numbers or spurred by fear and 

 fury rushing in irresistible stampede and leaving clouds of dust 

 behind, can be only dimly imagined. Single herds ol ten 

 thousandbufTalowerenot at alluncommon.andnothingcould resist 

 the shock of these legions when in stampede. Fences, tents, 

 waggons, even settlers' huts were thrown down, and railway 

 trains have been compelled to stop until the monstrous troop 

 passed by or run the risk of being overturned by the onward 

 5weep of the buffalo. 



The narrow winding paths along which they moved in 

 single file can be still clearly seen upon the prairie, radiating in 

 every direction and converging and crossing each other, while 

 the hollow basins in the earth, the " wallows " where they rolled 

 in the dust, or in wet mud where the ground was marshy 

 are distinctly visible though hollowed out twenty or thirty years 

 ago. Of the thousands of paths to be clearly discerned by the 

 traveller on the C. P. R. west of Winnipeg, a large proportion 

 run nearly north and south and indicate no doubt seasonal 

 migrations from the usual summer resorts to more southerly 

 •winter grazing grounds. Six or eight paths frequently run side 

 ,by side, and as the western rivers usually take an east and west 

 <:ourse, the buffalo paths lead to water. Some of the paths are 

 stated to have been worn down to a depth of 24 to 30 inches so 

 vast where the long lines of buffalo which tramped along them. 



If it is hardly possible to adequately picture the roving 

 buffalo herds as they appeared a quarter of a century ago, we 

 can happil)' still form some conception of their imposing and 



