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172 



THE AMEEICAN EISOE"S, 



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from the "great central prairie land/' he says : ^^Far in the northern forests 

 of the Athabasca a few buffaloes may for a time bid defiance to man, but 

 theyj too, must disappear^ and nothing be left of this giant beast save the 

 bones that for many an age will whiten the prairies over which the great 

 herds roamed at will in times before the white man came."^ 



Mr. Iluyshcj writing in 1871 of the region about Fort Garry^ says : "Buf- 

 falo are no longer found nearer than three hundred miles west of Fort 

 Garry, and are gradually being driven further and further west by the ad- 

 vancino; stream of civilization." t 



er range of 



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In a valuable communication respecting the present and forii 

 the buffalo in the British Possessions, kindly sent me by Mr. J. W.Taylor, 

 U. S. Consul at Winnipeg, Mr. Taylor, under date of " United States Con- 

 sulatc, Winnipeg, B. N. A., April 26, 1873," writes as follows: "In preparing 

 this reply to your note requesting information respecting the comparative 

 numbers and present range of the buffalo, I have consulted Mr. Andrew 

 McDcrmott, an old and intelligent resident of Selkirk Settlement, now known 

 as the province of Manitoba. This gentleman, when a very young man, was 

 in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, — from 1812 to 1821, 

 has since been a successfid trader. His position in the country is attested 

 by his recent appointment as the Manitoba Director of the Canada Pacific 



Railway Company. 



^^My informant, in 1818, was in the midst of a large herd, only two miles 

 west of Fort Garry, where I am writing. His party stood for an hour in the 

 midst of the black moving mass, with difficulty preventing themselves, by 



from being trampled to death. Now, in 



and 



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the constant discharge of fire-arms 



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1873, the nearest point where the animal is found is at the Woody Hills, 

 upon the International frontier, three hundred miles southwestwardly, while 

 you must go five hundred miles west to meet large bands. Formerly a 

 variety called the wood buffalo was very numerous in the forests surround- 

 Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba, the last survivor having been killed only 

 two years ago, on Sturgeon Creek, ten miles Avest of Fort Garry. The wood 

 buffalo is smaller than its congener of the plains, with finer and darker w^ool, 

 and a superior quality of flesh. It more resembles the 'bison' of naturalists. 

 "The Saskatche^van plains, near the Rocky Mountains, have always been 



* 



a great resort of the buffalo, and although the traditions of their immense 



* The Great Lone Land, pp. 315, 320. 



t Huysbe (G. L.), The lied Kiver Expedition, p. 230, 1S71. . 



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