Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1909-08-26
BISON IN CANADA.
Government Has Large and Growing
Herd on Northwestern Reservation.

Correspondence of the London Times
In 1906 MIR. Frank Oliver, minister
d the interior, obtained for the Domin-
ION government an option on the 600
nhsold head of bison belonging to Mes
srs' Pablo and Aliard, and eventually
they We're all bought for 100000. To-
day five or six times as much could he
realized by selling the herd piecemeal
to American private collectors, and the
governments of western states which
are now lamenting a lost opportunity.
hut Canada has no intention whatever
OF selling single head. The round
up lasted two months, and was sue
sessfully carried out by Is cowboys,
horsemen picked for their ability from
every part of the great Montana rang
rs, who We're paid at the rate Of IS a
nay For some weeks the roundup was
y failure: only three times in more
than a month of daily drives did the
cowboys succeed in getting few head
into the railside corrals
The bison, finding themselves being
driven from their familiar pasturage,
and not knowing that the hay of the
Saskatchewan valley is better than.
that of the Montana ridges, would
charge the cncircling line of horsemen
with the widest fury and break and
scatter 1T to the four winds. Eventu-
ally. In order to save time and horse
flesh, Mr.. Pabo-himself a cowboy ia
nous throughout the West--decded
| that 1t was necessary to build a bison
proof fence, &c miles in length, from
, the pastures to the corrals, so as to
sut off retreat in one direction Down
inns 1encc, In spite of their many sue
sess1ul efforts to break away, the bison
were gradually driven into the corrals
and, not without much difficulty, load
cd aboard the Enclosed cattle trucks
Of Great Northern freight trains at the
little station of Revalli. The long rail-
way journey of 1900 miles over five
railway systems to Lamont, in Alberta
was accomplished with a loss of less
than | per cent.
The herd has wintered we'll and will
be shipped down this month or next
to the new National park at Vain
wright. on the Grand Trunk Pacific
| main line. The park. which has an
area of 100 square miles and contains
many clean bottomed lakes, endless
chains of hay swamps and sheltered
river valleys, has been securely inclosed
With high fence of wire and tamarac
posts. A number of deer were in
closed in the building of the fence, so
that the bison will have companions
in their spacious reservation. In 20
years there should be 10000 head at
the prisoners will have received their
discharge, to live in the occasional
tracts of hflly or sandy lands. frag-
mentary dunes and beaches of the van
ished Lake Agassiz, OF the biologists.
which are useless for farming and are
met with here and there throughout
| the Canadian Northwest Then, but
not till then, the visiting sportsmen
will be able to hunt the North Ameri-
can bison.
| The artificial revival of this mag
nlhcent animal is an object lesson to
those who deplore the threatened ex-
tinction of the most imposing of the
South African fauna. Game preserya-
ton laws will generally enable the
smaller animals to survive, even &c
they have the i'll fortune to wear the
furs coveted by ladies' The return of
the beaver to many of it's deserted
hants In both Eastern and Western
Canada is a case in point. Ten years
ago the living symbol Of Canadian
enterprise and industry seemed In dam
ger of extinction. Now 1T is once more
busy buildinr the waterbreaks which
help to store up the rainfall of the
country instead of allowing it to be
dissipated in disastrous floods But
If the heavy beasts which can be eaten
/ by the most shameless Of the carniyora
man, to wit--are to be preserved.
something more is needed than the
translation of the sportman's first
COMMUNICATING shalt not kill
needlessly-into laws and bylaws.