288 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



of the frozen lands, familiar in harness are 

 oxen. The yak, in Tibet, and the buffalo, in 

 Turkey, are the common draught animals in 

 everyday use, and the Tibetans even ride their 

 yaks, though I never saw a Turk astride a 

 water buffalo, save only little children at play. 

 The yak has lately been introduced into Mani- 

 toba, the Duke of Bedford having presented 

 six of these animals to the Canadian Govern- 

 ment as the nucleus of an interesting experi- 

 ment. If the animal should justify the expec- 

 tations of Mr. Thomson Seton and defy alike 

 frostbite and the mosquito Canada's chief 

 menace to her visitors future generations of 

 Canadians will be confronted with the curious 

 spectacle of these fine Asiatic oxen grazing on 

 the prairies once trampled by the buffalo. 



These oxen are slow but surefooted, docile, 

 and amenable to discipline. The yak has the 

 great advantage of being available for moun- 

 tain transport, whereas the majority of oxen are 

 used only for ploughing or road traction in the 

 plains. Their strength is enormous. The yak, 

 it is true, carries only three hundredweight in 

 the hills, but some of the loads drawn, willingly 

 or otherwise, by buffaloes over the stony roads 

 in Turkey must be tremendous. On the whole, 

 the Turks treat their animals far better than 

 the majority of European nations, particularly 

 those that dwell along the shores of the Medi- 



