1897.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 493 



Slave Lake, and the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains in Atha- 

 basca, has been asserted by hunters and travellers in this portion of 

 the great northwest. Many have been the opinions of naturalists 

 as to the relations of this so-called " Wood Buffalo " to its congener 

 of the plains, the Bos bison of Linnaeus and the Bos americanus of 

 Gmelin and subsequent authors generally. Unfortunately the sub- 

 ject has, up to the present time, never got beyond the domain of 

 hearsay, theory and hunter's stories, because no undoubted specimen 

 of typical Wood Buffalo has been made a basis for the* critical de- 

 termination of its characters as compared with the buffalo of the 

 more southern plains and prairies. In searching among the litera- 

 ture touching upon the Wood Buffalo this radical deficiency became 

 more and more apparent, and it was with no small satisfaction that 

 the writer succeeded in discovering, through correspondence with 

 his friend, Professor J. Macoun, of the Canadian Geological Survey, 

 that a specimen of an adult male Wood Buffalo had recently been 

 added to their museum at Ottawa. The characters of this specimen 

 sufficiently confirm the more trustworthy statements of those who 

 have had a field acquaintance with the Wood Buffalo to show its 

 claim to recognition as a well defined race of Bison bison. Nor is 

 this to be wondered at when we consider the decidedly different en- 

 vironment and habits of this northern race, and from what we know 

 of other American mammals living in similar conditions, the differ- 

 entiation between the two had practically become a foregone conclu- 

 sion. 



Before giving a detailed description of the Wood Buffalo it will be 

 of use to the reader to know something of its literary history. 

 Among the earliest notices we have of the existence of the American 

 bison in the limited area now exclusively tenanted by the woodland 

 race was Mackenzie's narrative in his " Travels to the Polar Sea," 

 Vol. II, pages 147, 155, 156, 377, where he states that he found 

 them abundant at the headwaters of Peace River. Sir John Rich- 

 ardson, in 1829, made the following statement of the northern range 

 of the bison in his " Fauna Boreali Americana," page 279 : " Great 

 Slave Lake, in latitude 60°, was at oue time the northern boundary 

 of their range, but of late years, according to the testimony of the 

 natives, they have taken possession of the flat limestone district of 

 Slave Point on the north side of that lake, and have wandered to 

 the vicinity of Great Marten Lake, in latitude 63° or 64°." On 

 page 282 of the same work he thus briefly refers to the woodland 



