Holly Wolbroclc, Age 9, Of Huntsville, Ala., for her question:

Which is the biggest animal in North America?

We have to round up some whopping animals before we can judge this contest. You may use your imagination and guess which you think is the largest native of north America. Perhaps the giant is a big, black, bearded bison or a bulky moose. Perhaps it is a bear., a brown bear or a white polar bear. Perhaps the winner will be a seal or a walrus of the frozen north.

We measure the biggest animal by his length, and we can weigh him by the Pound. We can measure the height of his shoulders from the ground. If, like the Bears, he likes to stand on his hind legs, we can measure his full height from the Ground. The moose is certainly a big animal, much bigger than the biggest horse He Stands seven feet high at shoulder level, and his lofty antlers are higher than the Tallest man. A bull moose may weigh half a ton, and a big fellow may weigh 1800 Pounds. He is the biggest of all our wild deer. But some of our bears are even bigger than the moose. The polar bear may be nine Feet long and weigh 1600 pounds, which is 100 pounds more than three quarters of a ton. But the brown kodiak bear is even bigger. He is nine feet long and stands 12 feet Tall on his hind legs. A giant kodiak bear has been known to weigh 1656 pounds. He Is slightly bigger and heavier than the polar bear. The walrus of the arctic lives on the shores and islands of the far north. This Tusky fellow may be 11 feet long, and his bulky body is covered with layers of fatty Blubber. A big male walrus weighs about one and a half tons, or 3000 pounds.

Surely we have no animal bigger or heavier than the walrus. But we have one who May also tip the scales at 3000 pounds. He is the bison, whose ancestors once roamed in herds over most of our land. Mr. Shaggyhead stands six feet high at shoulder level including his little whisp of a tail, the bison   alias the buffalo   may be 13 feet long. Yes, the buffalo on our old nickel is a portrait of the largest native American.

Before Columbus found. The new world,, there may have been 50 million buffalo in North America. But the big, shaggy oxen were driven back as civilization marched westward across the plains. William Cody was paid $500 a month to keep the big animals from the railroad tracks. He killed 4280 bison in one month, which is how Cody earned the name of Buffalo Bill.