124 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
rence of these buffalo, and found them ‘‘very plentiful” in 
the country east of Slave River. Mackenzie (1801) also 
records them in the region adjoining the river named after 
him to the west of the Great Slave Lake, and on the plains 
near Vermilion Falls. In 1808 Harmon found them abun- 
dant on either side of the Peace River near the Rocky 
Mountains. Richardson’s observations in 1829 have already 
been quoted (p. 114). Other travellers referred to their 
abundance in this region in subsequent years, and E. W. 
Nelson’s letter referring to their occurrence has been 
quoted (p. 115). John Macoun, in his ‘‘ Manitoba and the 
Great Northwest,’’ refers to this herd as follows: ‘‘The wood 
buffalo, when I was in the Peace River in 1875, were confined 
to the country lying between the Athabaska and Peace 
Rivers north of latitude 57° 37’, or chiefly in the Birch Hills. 
They were also said to be in some abundance on Hay River 
and on Salt River, a tributary of Slave River north of Peace 
River. The herds thirteen years ago were supposed to num- 
ber about one thousand all told. I believe many still exist 
as the Indians of that region eat fish, which are much easier 
procured than either buffalo or moose, and the country is 
much too difficult for white men.”’ 
In an article in the Field (London) of November 10, 1888, 
Mr. Miller Christy (quoted by Hornaday) states: ‘‘The 
Hon. Dr. Schultz, in a recent debate on the Mackenzie River 
basin in the Canadian Senate, quoted Senator Hardisty of 
Edmonton, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, to the effect 
that the buffalo still existed in the region in question. ‘It 
was’ he said, ‘difficult to estimate how many; but probably 
five or six hundred still remain in scattered bands.’ There 
had been no appreciable difference in their numbers, he 
thought, during the last fifteen years, as they could not 
be hunted on horseback, on account of the wooded character 
of the country, and were therefore very little molested. 
They are larger than the buffalo of the great plains, weighing 
