Omaha daily bee., 1910-11-27
RuFEALo Now ROAM
Animal Life IN the Prairie wilder
ness in the Arctic
Region.

What young man Of our race would not
gladly give a year Of his life 20 roll back
ward the scroll Of time for five decades.
and live that year On the romantic by-gone
days Of the Wild west; 20 see the great
Missouri while the buffalo pastured on It's
banks while big game teemed in sight and
the red man roamed and hunted, unchecked
by fence or hint Of white mans rule; or,
when that rule was represented only by
scattered trading posts, hundreds Of miles
apart, and at the best the traders could
exchange the news by horse or canoe, and
months Of lonely travel?
], for one would have rejoiced in tenfold
payment for the privilege OF this backward
look in our age, and had reached middle
life before realized that. at a much less
heavy cost the miracle was possible today.
For the uncivilized Indian still roams the
far reaches Of absolutely unchanged, IN
broken forest and prairie leagues, and has
knowledge Of white men only On bartering
furs at the scattered trading posts where
locomotive and telegraph are unknown;
still the wild buffalo elude the hunters,
fight the wolves wallow, wander and
breed and still there is hoofed game by
the million 70 be found where the Saxon
Is as seldom seen as on the Missouri in
the times Of Lewis and Clarke Only we
must seek il all, not in the west but in
the far northwest; and for Missouri and
Mississippi" read Peace and Mackenzie
rivers" those noble streams that north
ward roll their mile-w wide turbid floods a
| thousand leagues TO the silent Arctic sea
This was the thought which spurrsd me
to six months journey by canoe And
I found what l went in search Of, but
found, also. abundant and better rewards
unF In
! son Of Kish. went seeking asses, and found
for himself a crown and a great king
dom.
A hundred miles long is this uncharted
stream fifty feet wide. eight feet Deep
crystal clear, calm, slow and deep to the
margin; a steamer could ply on it's deep
placid, unobstructed flood a child could
navigate 1t anywhere. The heavenly beauty
OF the shores, with virgin forests of fresh
green spruces towering q hundred feet on
every SIDE or varied in open places with
| long rows and thickset hedges OF the
gorgeous wild red Athabaska rose, made
a stream that most canoemen, woodmen
and naturalists think without a fault or
| flaw. aud with every river beauty IN its
highest possible degree. Not trees and
! flood alone had strenuous power to win
our souls; at every point and bank, in
every bend were living creatures OF the
north, beaver and bear not often SEEN but
abundant; moose tracks showed from time
to time, and birds were here in thousands.
| Rare winter birds, as we had long been
taught to think them in our southern
homes; here we found them in their native
land, and heard not a few sweet melodies
OF which in far-away Ontario Jersey and
Maryland we had been favored only with
promising scraps when wintry clouds were
broken by the sun. Nor we're the old
familiar ones away-flioker, sapsucker
hairy woodpecker, kingfisher, least fly,
catcher, alder Eycatcher. robin and CROW
and horned owl were here TO mingle theil
noises with the stranger melodies and oall'
OF Lincoln sparrow. fox sparrow, olive
sided flycatcher. snipe, rusty blsckbird and
bohemian waxwing.
never saw horned owl a. plentiful slse
where. did not know that there were %
many bear and beaver left. never wa,
so much impressed by the splendid raucou;
olamor Of the cranes the continual spattel
OF ducks, the cries Of gulls and yellowisgs
Hour after hour we padded down thai
stately river, adding our three and hal
miles TO It's one-mile speed; each turn
brought to view some new and Ioveiel
aspect of bird and forest life. I neve
knew land Of balmier air; I never Eel
the piney breeze more sweet; nowhere bu
, in the higher mountains is there such
tonic sense abroad; the bright woods anC
river reaches were eloquent Of q elm,
whose maladies are mostly foreign boFn.-
/ FTFI,, gVa Gavaf