44 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



adequate his strength was for escape by flight. Poor old 

 creature, his days were numbered ; for as soon as my back 

 was turned, and a safe distance intervened between us, the 

 wolves returned, and as I rode homeward, occasionally turn- 

 ing and halting to watch the gradually more indistinct bel- 

 ligerents, the victim was still employed in battling for life. 

 After all, was he not paying the debt of nature, and dying 

 as his ancestors for generations had died before him ? Man 

 yields his spirit to the source from whence it emanates, on 

 a luxurious couch or humble straw bed, after frequently 

 suffering from protracted and painful illness. The veteran 

 buffalo, effete from age, after a long and happy life, when 

 unable to keep with his companions, dies in a gallant and 

 short struggle, overpowered by his too numerous enemies, 

 a death worthy of a hero. 



The cow calves in spring, although I have, on several oc- 

 casions, met with a mother as late as the end of July with 

 a youngster by her side, not over a couple of weeks old. 

 The attachment shown by the parent for her offspring, and 

 the solicitude she evinces for its safety, impart a touching 

 lesson, which even the human family would do well to fol- 

 low. I remember on one occasion I had been setting traps 

 in a small stream with abundant signs that beaver were 

 numerous in the vicinity. I had waded up this water- 

 course for upward of a mile, all the time being hidden from 

 the view of the animals on the prairie by the bluffness of 

 the banks. Having performed my task, I left the stream 

 and ascended to the level of the country. The first glance 

 I took disclosed a beautiful and interesting picture, for a* 

 young cow, with her calf almost between her legs, stood 

 determinedly facing several wolves. The baby was evi- 

 dently sick, and the instinct of the party of prowlers told 

 them so. My sympathies, of course, were not with the ag- 

 gressors; and, the better to prove it, I picked out the ap- 



