In Buffalo Days 



is found in the timbered Rocky Mountains ; 

 the " wood buffalo " of the Northwest, which 

 inhabits the timbered country to the west and 

 north of Athabasca Lake; and the "beaver 

 buffalo." The last named has been vaguely 

 described to me by northern Indians as small 

 and having a very curly coat. I know of 

 only one printed account of it, and this says 

 that it had '* short, sharp horns which were 

 small at the root and curiously turned up and 

 bent backward, not unlike a ram's, but quite 

 unlike the bend of the horn in the common 

 buffalo." It is possible that this description 

 may refer to the musk-ox, and not to a buf- 

 falo. The "mountain" and "wood" buffalo 

 seem to be very much alike in habit and ap- 

 pearance. They are larger, darker, and 

 heavier than the animal of the plains, but 

 there is no reason for thinking them specifi- 

 cally distinct from it. Such differences as 

 exist are due to conditions of environment. 

 The color of the buffalo in its new coat is a 

 dark liver-brown. This soon changes, how- 

 ever, and the hides, which are at their best 

 in November and early December, begin to 

 grow paler toward spring; and when the coat 

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