Susan Mihalcoe, age ll, of Quinton., Va.., for her question:
Did the buffalo ever roam in Virginia?
Shaggy herds of buffalo were grazers of the grasslands and their cattle type hoofs were meant to roam the flat plains. They could not make a living from Virginia's piney branches and leafy laurels or munch the dainty dogwood. They could not climb Virginia's scenic ridges and ravines.
When the pioneers began their westward adventure they found plains teeming with herds of shaggy cattle. They called them buffalo because they resembled the buffalo cattle of Asia and other parts of the Old World, Naturalists now call them bison the American bison, They have estimated that the original herd numbered 60 million or more.
Every animal. must live where he can make a living. He also must live where conditions are safe and suitable to his particular build. Elephants, for example, would not survive long in swampy ground. Neither would the bulky bison because he often weighs one and a half tons. As for food, he must roam where grass is plentiful. for this is all he eats. His natural home, is the wide open plains of North America. provided him with a vast expanse of ideal living conditions.
Our grassy plains extend from the southern prairies northward into central Canada, and stretch from the western mountains to the eastern Appalachians. The original bison herds grazed all over this wills expanse, roaming everywhere with the seasons to find greener pastures. They dad not roam high into the western mountains because the bully fellows were not climbers and their hoofs were not meant for stony slopes
Virginia straddles the ancient Appalachians between the flatlands and the eastern sea. It is a region of breath taking scenery with forested mountains and steep ravines. Its evergreen crests slide down slopes adorned with lacy dogwood and leafy laurel. The rolling meadows in its deep valleys were cultivated by the early settlers. When the bison roamed the central plains these lowlands were carpeted with marsh weeds and wild flowers.
The bison herds roamed thousands of miles in search of greenery and saane may have wandered into a fear of Virginia's olden valleys. But the lovely land did not suit them and no doubt they soon strayed back to their grassy plains. The Appalachians form a natural. wall along the eastern range of the American bison and the big herds never tried to cross than.
We Americans tend to blame ourselves for reducing the great herds to a few hundred. Certainly thousands were slaughtered as the wagons and rails moved westward. Nature herself also helped to destroy the shaggy cattle for early naturalists reported that just as many perished in floods and other natural events, Mankind rescued the bewildered survivors and kept them where their could build up a few small herds in safety