Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-11-12

IlSneu' as commercial propositions.
Some day before long we may choice bits of
buffalo hump the market. 1t is even possible
that the buffalo robe of fathers may come
back. In the meantime the buffalo herds owned
by the United States and by Canada are increas-
Ing so rapidly that both governments are a bit
puzzled to know what to do with the surplus.
Two generations ago In the United States
there was room on the Great Plains for both
the countless thousands of buffalo and for the
Indians who lived off the buffalo. Now the Great
Plains have been transformed into ranches and
farms reclamation projects and oil fields towns
and cities. The I2dian has changed breech-clout
for overalls. He is farmer csAtleman, oil mag
nate. Instead Of whooping across country on
bareback paint horse" he now rides in closed
car and toots his horn. SO the buffalo can't 60
back to the Great Plains
y UNCLE Sam has three national park herds: one
In Wind River and two In Yellowstone The yell
lowstone wild herd' ranges the almost unex.
plored Mirror plateau region between the Grand
canyon of the Yellowstone and the crest of the
Absoroka mountains. To get reliable count Is
almost impossible. The herd is certainly not de-
creasing in size. The tame herd" is fed hay in
winter; that's about all the difference between
wild" and tame" 1t now numbers nearly SOO
The 1924 increase was 120 calves about $3.50
as to sex. Last fall Uncle Sam gave away SO bulls
This fall he would be glad to give away 100 the
recipient to pay the cost Of catching and trans
ing and transporting bull from the tame herd'
range Of Gardiner, Mont, is about $780, In
1904 the Canadian government paid an American
rancher $3.50 each for Tic head &c. you see the
price Of buffalo has gone down
Canada's buffalo problem is more pressing and
on the face of things more easily solved It has
more buffalo, but III also has plenty Of room for
the surplus When Canada bought the herd of
Michael Pablo in the Flathead Indian reservation
in Montana 20 years ago it created for it the
Buffalo park at Wainwright, Alberta the worlds
largest inclosed preserve-about 100 square miles.
The original herd of 716 has now increased to
than 900 and has outgrown its quarters.
So Canada purposes during the next four years
to transfer about 10000 young animals to the Far
North.
The Canadian government, a few years before
the creation of the Wainwright park established
a preserve In the Far North for it's famous
"wood buffalo, the only known herd in the world"
Fort Smith, on the dividing line between Alberta
and the Northwest territories is headquarters the
preserve comprises 10000 square miles in a tri-
angle between the Peace, Slave and Hay rivers,
with Lake Athabasca on the south and Great Slave
lake on the north. The wood buffalo herd is now
believed to number about 1000.
Much has been written about this wood buffalo
herd And much of II appears to be sheer
sense. Even now biologists are contending that
the wood buffalo is an European buffalo whose
ancestors migrated across while the continents
were still joined They hold that the interbreed-
ing of 10000 Great Plains buffalo with 1000 wood
buffalo will result in the extinction OF the latter
"a scientific crime"
A much more credible view is that the wood
buffalo is nothing more or less than the Great
Plains buffalo, slightly changed by existence in
the North The wood buffalo is slightly darker
and little larger and heavier; that appears to be
the only difference. You see the Great Plains
buffalo originally ranged clear to the Arctic circle
large herd was cut in two by the building of the
Canadian railways The south half was extermi-
mated The north half had been reduced to about
1000 when the Fort Smith reservation Gre
ated Since then it has increased about 100 per
cent