294 The King of the Thundering Herd 



But what of this lone figure on the fringe 

 of the Muskeg, standing there in a con- 

 templative mood, chewing his cud neath 

 the overhanging tamarack ? He is our old 

 friend Buck, the disinherited King of all 

 the North American Bison that formerly 

 ranged from Saskatchewan to Kansas. Here 

 he stands upon the edge of the Muskeg, one 

 of the few survivors of his species. 



But his kingship has not yet quite fallen 

 from him, for in and out among the 

 Muskegs and upon the barrens, come and 

 go fifty or a hundred buffalo, although 

 their coats are longer and they are taller 

 and rangier than of yore. They are the 

 wood buffalo of the Athabasca, so says the 

 naturalist, but you and I know that they 

 are the remnant of the old King's great 

 herd, fugitives from the mercy of man, es- 

 caped to a land so desolate and so forbid- 

 ding that the white destroyer with his fire 

 stick will not follow hence. 



