THE PASSING OF THE WILD 311 



and the United States. One such herd is domi- 

 ciled in Canada's National Park at Banff, in 

 the heart of the Rocky Mountains, where I 

 have stood less than fifty yards from them 

 without suspecting" their presence till an official 

 showed them to me. The Park has a fine 

 muster of them, including the Flathead herd, 

 four or five hundred strong, which was pur- 

 chased by the Canadian Government for 

 ^40,000. Curiously enough, this famous 

 herd was Canadian by descent, as its four 

 original members, which were still living at 

 the time of my visit, had been driven over the 

 border into Montana in 1873, the year that 

 witnessed the virtual extinction of the great 

 southern herd which had been cut off from the 

 northern herd by the building of the trans- 

 continental railway six years earlier. They 

 have a beautiful home at Banff, planted with 

 dense thickets of spruce and larch and carpeted 

 with columbine and the characteristic American 

 flower known as " Indian Paintbrush." It is 

 also pleasant to reflect, without boasting, that 

 the reserve at Banff is nearly twice the size of 

 the Yellowstone Park and, in fact, the biggest 

 sanctuary in the New World. How it may 

 compare for size with some of the projected 

 extensions of animal sanctuaries in British 

 Africa I have no knowledge. These " parks" 

 must not be confused in the reader's mind with 



