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 



175 



