The Bear and the Bison. \ 73 



on to an island in Flathead Lake, where they did well, but I do not 

 know whether it is still there. The herd once kept by Mr. Bedson, 

 the Warden of the Manitoba Penitentiary, near Winnipeg, was 

 sold a number of years ago. The small bunches of bison that are 

 reported to exist to-day on the Peace River in the N.W.T., north- 

 west of Edmonton, are, it is said by those who should know, not the 

 true bison of the Plains, but the smaller, darker, and finer fleeced 

 wood bison. A skin I once saw at Calgary, reported to have come 

 from that region, was certainly much darker and finer haired than 

 any Plains bison hide I ever saw. In the Appendix (Note 2), I have 

 added a description of Jones's " Buffalo Ranch," published some 

 years ago in the Tribune. I understand that Mr. Jones has since 

 sold his herd to two half-breed Flathead Indians living on the 

 Flathead reservation in Montana, named Charles Allard and 

 Michel Pablo. A Mr. Goodnight, in Texas, has another small 

 herd of forty head ; and on the Sioux reservation in South Dakota 

 there is another small band of twenty-five head. In a few private 

 preserves, such as the Corbin preserve in New Hampshire, and the 

 Whitney preserve in Massachusetts, there are also small bunches. 

 According to accounts just received, the National Park (Yellow- 

 stone) herd of bison consists now of some fifty animals only, 

 daring poachers raiding the herd every winter. 



The Sheard collection appears also to include a remarkable 

 bison head, of which the owner sent me the fine photograph here 

 reproduced on a reduced scale. He gives these measurements : 

 36in. spread, 2i|in. length of horn, and I5in. circumference. 



