298 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



The only wild Buffalo now left are those preserved in the 

 Yellowstone Park, and the herd of Wood-buffalo that finds 

 a refuge in the woods and on the Plains of Great Slave River. 



DOMESTi- So far as I can learn the earliest systematic effort to domes- 



CATION 



ticate the Buffalo took place in Manitoba. In 1877 some 

 Indians returning to Winnipeg from the west brought with 

 them 5 Buffalo calves (i bull and 4 heifers). These became 

 the property of James McKay, and were allowed to run about 

 the outskirts of the town until 1882, when the herd, now num- 

 bering 23, came into the possession of S. L. Bedson, by whose 

 courtesy I was enabled to examine the herd at Stoney Moun- 

 tain and gather full information. 



The account, which I partly reproduce, appeared in the 

 May, 1886, edition of my ''Mammals of Manitoba." 



THE At the present time (January, 1885) the herd numbers 41 ; 



HERD of these, 9 are half-breeds with the common cattle; 6 are three- 

 quarter bred; and the rest pure Buffalo. The object of 

 domesticating these beasts is to provide an animal better 

 suited to the requirements of the North-west than the common 

 animal, which is, of course, unable to bear the winter without 

 a certain amount of housing and feeding. 



These Buffalo receive no care beyond what is necessary 

 to prevent them wandering away or being stolen. They live 

 on the open prairie summer and winter, subsisting on the wild 

 grass, even when they have to dig for it through one or more 

 feet of snow. Nor is it a bare existence that they so maintain; 

 for when I saw them late in January they were finding grass 

 enough, not merely to feed, but to fatten them. When a 

 blizzard comes on they lie down close together with their backs 

 to the wind, and allow the snow to drift over them, so that under 

 the combined protection of the snow and their own woolly 

 coats they are perfectly comfortable. In January, 1884, one 

 of the cows calved on the open prairie, and though at the time 

 the thermometer registered 38 degrees below zero, neither 

 cow nor calf appeared to suffer the slightest inconvenience. 



