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. Iremember 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- 
