232 



EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



During the winter of 1892-3 fort}' buffaloes were killed, the 

 largest number that had been secured for several years. I saw 

 most of these robes which were very dark, the hair thick and 

 curled, making a robe superior to that of either musk-ox or 

 plains buffalo; they were so large that the Indians had cut 

 many of them in halves for convenience in hauling on the sleds. 



From 20 to 100 MB are paid for the robes. The traders are 

 trying to induce the Indians to preserve them as mountable skins. 



The northern limit of the range of the buffalo, as given by 

 Mackenzie, was the Horn Mountains, north of the Little Lake. 

 Pere Ruore, of the Saint Michel Mission at Rae, who has crossed" 

 the Rae-Providence traverse several times, assured me that he 

 had seen buffalo skulls on the prairies which lie within fifty 

 miles of Providence, northwest of the western end of the Great 

 Slave Lake. I saw no remains of buffaloes when I crossed 

 these prairies in December, owing to the snow, but the country 

 is similar to that south of the lake where they are still found. 



Black Head, an old Yellow Knife chief, living at the mouth 

 of the Riviere au Jean, told me that he had killed "plenty of 

 buffaloes" in the delta of the Slave River. About fifteen years 

 ago a few were killed near Liard, but they are seldom seen in 

 that quarter. The} 7 formerly frequented the "Salt Plains," 

 forty miles northeast of Fort Smith. Franklin's party killed a 

 buffalo in that vicinity at the time of their visit in 1820. 1 Rich- 

 ardson states that in 1848 there was an abundance of deer and 

 buffalo meat obtainable on the Salt Plains. 2 



They are at present confined to the neutral ground between 

 the Chippewyans and the Beavers. 



The Rev. C. G. Wallace, in 1892, found the skull of a fossil 

 buffalo (B. antiquus f) on the Porcupine River, and others have 

 been reported from the Yukon valley. 



The collection contains a very large skull of the plains buf- 

 falo, which was secured at Pincher Creek, Alberta. 



Ovibos moschatus (Blainv.). Musk-ox 



£t-jir-er, D. R. Ok-ki, L. Ota et-jir-er, S. 



The musk-ox is a short-limbed, heavily-built animal, weigh- 



1 Franklin, Sir John, Narrative, p. 177. 



2 Arctic Searching Expedition, p. 149. 



