220 EEPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1900 



John Tate, Alnwick; Mr R. S. Weir, North Shields; Mr 

 Willoby, Berwick ; Mr Joseph Wilson and Miss Wilson, 

 Duns ; and Rev. Thos. Varley, vicar of Leadgate. 



In respect alike to the area it covers and the variety of 

 its inhabitants, Mr Leyland's establishment is certainly oue 

 of the finest in England, and the inspection of his unique 

 collection of animals and birds afforded the greatest pleasure 

 to the visitors. It was just withiu the park gates, inside a 

 strongly fenced field close to the station, that the first glimpses 

 of the American buffalo were caught, and, truth to say, 

 these shaggy monsters, with their great heads and powerful 

 shoulders, were objects of the keenest curiosity. Like the 

 Redskin, the buffalo is, in America, rapidly becoming extinct, 

 and Mr Leyland is making the experiment, which is proving 

 successful, of perpetuating the species by breeding from the 

 animals in confinement. He procured his first specimen of a 

 pure-bred bison in 1890, and in the course of his travels he 

 secured sixteen altogether. Now, with the cross-bred animals, 

 obtained chiefly by mating the bison with the Highland 

 cows, there is a herd of over thirty of these prairie beauties. 

 They stand the English climate, tantalisingly changeable as 

 it is, very well on the whole ; but the cold dampness of the 

 winter is rather trying to them, whilst the richness of the 

 herbage also occasionally gives rise to anxiety. There are 

 stoutly built houses constructed for their use in the pasturages, 

 but they live out of doors as a rule, and may be easily 

 identified from the train by any passengers going north 

 who choose to cast their eyes to the left immediately Beal 

 Station is passed. On Wednesday one of the lady visitors 

 endeavoured to get a snapshot of a handsome bull, but 

 immediately on sighting the stranger he careered wildly over 

 the field with head down, giving the visitors the notion 

 that they were on much the better side of the wall. However, 

 the fair photographer succeeded in obtaining a picture to her 

 satisfaction a moment later, when a half-dozen magnificent 

 North American stags and hinds came under inspection. One 

 of the stags is ten years old, and another five years. Mr 

 Leyland brought them from Wales to Haggerston. Proceeding 

 along the pleasant roads of the estate, shaded by stately elms, 

 limes, and other fine trees, the foliage of which looked most 



