Great Buffalo Hunt.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13520, 15 February 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

Great Buffalo Hunt.

The last great Buffalo hunt has just taken place across the American border, and 400 bison, purchased by the Canadian Government from an American halfbreed,- have been placed on a. vest reservation north of Edmonton. The hunt was marked by many exieiting incidents, and the cowboys who participated had some narrow escapes. These .animals, which have roamed wild over the Flathead res.'rvation in the mountaincus district of Western Montana, were described' by the American Government. The latter offered Michael Pablo, their owner, £ls a head, but Pablo refused, and eventually sold the bison to the Dominion Government- at £SO a head. There were 600 animals on the Flathead reservation, but it has only been possible to capture 400 thus far, and it is probable that at least half of "the remainder will never ba. caught. The ..work- was most dangerous, because the animals were not to be killed or injured. A buffalo at bay is as dangeror.s as a mad elephant, and the Government had great difficulty in securing a sufficient number of cowboys to undertake the work cf "rounding them up." The herds were approached on the windward side. Then a long line of horsemen swung out and closed around as many animals "as pcssible, and, with revolvers blazing away in the air, lnrsoes' waving and wild shouts, the cowboys stampeded the buffaloes in the right direction. Herds of them from thirty to 100 buffaloes would be driven towards the corral at such lightning speed that the horses often fell" from exhaustion. But when the herd arrived in sight of the corral the great bulls which led them would often become alarmed at the sight of human habitations, would break through theline of horsemr-n, and scatter in all directions. Before the exhausted cowboys could rally the herd would dash back to their feeding grounds in the mountains, Tn this manner the work of "rounding up" 4CO buffaloes required weeks. : " At length two train loads of captured buffaloes were made up and shipped across the Canadian fr-ntier, and it is hoped to send a. further shipment before Christmas. When hard prissed the bull buffaloes would repeatedly turn and charge the galloping lnn-fomen. who were obliged to ride for tli'MV lives. The bu.ffalo.-s"now at Edmonton and the ones remaining in Montana, are the best specimens in existence to-day. Besiiks ihem are fiulv known to exist a few wood buffaloes in the Peace River country, and some half tame herds in .Asshiib'one Park, Winnipeg, and the Canadian public paik at Banff.