46 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



learn that it was particularly abundant along the Upper Red 

 River and in the Pembina or Hair Hills. In 1857, when 

 Professor Hind went through from Winnipeg to Fort Ellice, 

 he saw but one Wapiti. It was in the sand-hills near the 

 present town of Carberry, and its appearance put his half- 

 breed guides in a state of excitement.^^ 



In 1882, when first I visited the Province, there were 

 plenty of old antlers on the Carberry Sandhills. In the three 

 years which followed I saw tracks three times, but once only 

 did I see a Wapiti. This was a bull that was killed and 

 brought to Carberry by some Indians in 1884. The head now 

 hangs in the Western Hotel of that town. At that time the 

 Wapiti was practically exterminated, except in the Pembina 

 Hills and the Duck and Riding Mountains. 



The dwindling process went on everywhere till about 

 1895. That was the low-ebb year in many parts of America 

 for many kinds of game, but it was also the year of the great 

 awakening. The lesson of the vanished BuiTalo had sunk 

 deep in men's minds. Thinking people everywhere recog- 

 nized that unless the methods then practised were stopped 

 all our fine game animals would go the way of the Bufi^alo. 

 They saw, too, that there was nothing to gain by extermina- 

 tion, and much to lose. Game protective societies, founded 

 in various parts of America by men who viewed with hate the 

 approaching desolation of the wilds, have now secured sound 

 legislation for the protection of harmless wild animals, and 

 public sentiment has secured a rigorous enforcement of these 

 new laws. Thus in many regions the process of extermination 

 has been stopped. 



And not only has an end been put to extirpatory hunting, 

 but the awakening has found its logical chmax in serious eff^orts 

 to re-stock many of the deserted ranges. Several areas whence 

 the species had long disappeared have been re-peopled with 

 Wapiti. Noteworthy among these are the Algonquin Park and 

 the Adirondack Mountains Park. The former is in charge of 



" Assin. and Sask. Expl. Exped., 1859, p. 41. 



