Around it, far into
endless space, stretch immense plains of bare and scanty vegetation,
plains seared with the tracks of countless buffalo which, until a few
years ago, were wont to roam in vast herds between the Assineboine and
the Saskatchewan. Upon whatever side the eye turns when crossing these
great expanses, the same wrecks of the monarch of the prairie lie
thickly strewn over the surface. Hundreds of thousands of skeletons dot
the short scant grass; and when fire has laid barer still the level
surface, the bleached ribs and skulls of long-killed bison whiten far and
near the dark burnt prairie. There is something unspeakably melancholy in
the aspect of this portion of the North-west. From one of the westward
jutting spurs of the Touchwood Hills the eye sees far away over an
immense plain; the sun goes down, and as he sinks upon the earth the
straight line of the horizon becomes visible for a moment across this
blood red disc, but so distant, so far away, that it seems dream like in
its immensity. There is not a sound in the air or on the earth; on every
side lie spread the relics of the great fight waged by man against the
brute creation: all is silent and deserted--the Indian and the buffalo
gone, the settler not yet come.
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