catch them by
running them down with relays of fresh horses, or driving them up the
mountains into the deepest snow or some narrow pass. A noose would
then be thrown about the exhausted animal, which would be instantly
mounted by an Indian and broken immediately to the saddle. Some of
these wild horses were exceedingly swift, well-proportioned, and
handsome in shape, but they seldom proved as docile as those born in
captivity. When in a wild condition they would snort so loudly through
the nostrils on descrying an enemy that they could be heard at a
distance of five hundred yards.

The provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba--the MIDDLE
WEST--represent mainly the great prairie region of the Canadian
Dominion. Nearly all the streams here flow from the eastern side of
the Rocky Mountains and direct their course to the basin of Lake
Winnipeg and to Hudson's Bay. A few turn south-west to the Missouri
and Mississippi. The landscapes here remind one more of the middle
part of the United States. The climate is severe in winter but very
warm and dry in summer. In the extreme south, within the basin of the
upper Missouri, the "prickly pear" (_Opuntia_) cactus grows in
sheltered places, and suggests affinities with distant Colorado and
California.

These great plains and river courses of the middle West were, until
about fifty years ago, one of the world's great natural parks or
zoological gardens. Large numbers of wapiti deer, of the smaller
Virginian deer,[4] and of the prongbuck "antelope"[5] thronged the
grassy flats, and elk browsed on the foliage of the thickets along the
river banks. Grizzly bears and black bears,[6] large grey wolves, the
small coyote wolf, the pretty little kit fox and large red fox preyed
on these herbivores, as did also pumas and lynxes. Marmots and prairie
hares (_Lepus campestris_)--often called rabbits by the pioneers, who
also named the marmots "wood-chucks"--frolicked in the herbage, and
formed the principal prey of the numerous rattlesnakes. By the shores
of streams and lakes stood rows of stately cranes: the whooping crane,
of large size, pure white, with black quill feathers, the crown of the
head crimson scarlet and the long legs black; and the purple-brown
crane, somewhat smaller in size. On hot, calm days in the region of
Lake Winnipeg the cranes soar to an amazing height, flying in circles,
till by degrees they are almost out of sight. Yet their loud note
sounds so distinct and