66 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



Besides, in that keen struggle for existence which 

 goes on in the animal world, the buffalo had strength 

 to defy all enemies. Of all the creatures that prey, 

 only the full-grown grisly was a match against the 

 buffalo ; and according to old hunting legends, even the 

 grisly held back from attacking a beast in the prime 

 of its power and sneaked in the wake of the roving 

 herds, like the coyotes and timber-wolves, for the chance 

 of hamstringing a calf, or breaking a young cow s neck, 

 or tackling some poor old king worsted in battle and 

 deposed from the leadership of the herd, or snapping 

 up some lost buffalo staggering blind on the trail of 

 a prairie fire. The buffalo, like the range cattle, had a 

 quality that made for the persistence of the species. 

 When attacked by a beast of prey, they would line up 

 for defence, charge upon the assailant, and trample 

 life out. Adaptability to environment, strength excel 

 ling all foes, wonderful sagacity against attack these 

 were factors that partly explained the vastness of the 

 buffalo herds once roaming this continent. 



Proofs enough remain to show that the size of the 

 herds simply could not be exaggerated. In two great 

 areas their multitude exceeded anything in the known 

 world. These were : ( 1 ) between the Arkansas and the 

 Missouri, fenced in, as it were, by the Mississippi and 

 the Rockies ; (2) between the Missouri and the Saskatch 

 ewan, bounded by the Rockies on the west and on the 

 east, that depression where lie Lakes Winnipeg, Mani 

 toba, and Winnipegoosis. In both regions the prairie 

 is scarred by trails where the buffalo have marched sin 

 gle file to their watering-places trails trampled by 

 such a multitude of hoofs that the groove sinks to the 

 depth of a rider s stirrup or the hub of a wagon-wheel. 



