THIRTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING. ° 115 
What destroyed them in that short interval? The answer is not 
difficult to seek—-deep snow! The buffalo grazes on the grass, the 
moose browses on the tall willows. During one winter of excep- 
tionally deep snow, eighty buffaloes were killed in a single day in the 
vicinity of Dunvegan. The Indians ran them into the snow-drifts, 
and then despatched them with knives. 
It is still a matter of dispute whether the Wood Buffalo is the same 
species as his namesake of the southern plains ; but, it is generally 
believed by the Indians that he is of a kindred race. He is, never- 
theless, larger, darker and wilder ; and, although the northern land 
in which he is still found abounds in open prairies and smal] plains, 
he, nevertheless, seeks in preference the thickest woods. Whether 
he be of the plain race or not, one thing is certain,—his habits vary 
much from his southern cousin. The range of the Wood Buffalo is 
much farther north than is generally believed. There are scattered 
herds, even now, on the banks of the Liard River, as far as sixty- 
one degrees of north latitude. 
When Mignault left the Peace River in 1875, the Wood Buffalo 
were plentiful in the country between Dunvegan and Great Slave 
Lake, and the Liard and Arthabasca Rivers. In 1884, he heard 
from a comrade, that they were then still common. 
The Indians, he said, call it Ah-thuk-ard Moos-toosh, and consider 
it quite distinct from the Prairie Buffalo, which they call Mas- 
Kootay Moos-toosh. 
Its general habits differ a good deal from those of its prairie 
relative, rather resembling those of the Moose, although it is much 
less wary and difficult to approach than that animal. 
It is rarely found in herds, except in the fall. The greatest num- 
ber my informant ever saw together was three. These were going 
down to the river, as he rounded a point in a barge. As soon as he 
came in view, they scrambled up the bank and disappeared in the 
woods. But‘in the month of October, the mating season, they are 
inclined to gather into straggling bands of both sexes, and go roam- 
ing about the woods, which are made to resound continually with 
the thud and trampling of the males engaged in battle. 
During the winter they confine themselves to thé heaviest and 
densest timber, subsisting on willow scrub, moss, and such dry grass 
as is attainable. In the summer they are so much persecuted by 
the bull-dog flies, that they spend the greater part of warm days 
