NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 347 



learned that about fifty years before snow fell to the estimated 

 depth of fourteen feet, and so enveloped the animals that they 

 perished by thousands." Such wholesale decimation must 

 have been rather rare, yet nevertheless shows what an unusual 

 season might so. Another danger to which these animals 

 sometimes must have succumbed is illustrated by an account 

 given to Preble (1908) of a herd of about 50 bison that were all 

 drowned in attempting to cross a small lake too early in the 

 season, before the ice would bear their weight. This was near 

 where the Petite Riviere Bouffante enters the Athabaska. 



Macfarlane, who resided at Fort Chipewyan during the 

 years 1870-85, said that the fort hunters seldom failed to kill 

 a few bison each winter, mainly on the north side of lower 

 Peace River (Preble, 1908). Writing in 1888, William Ogilvie 

 (quoted by Preble, 1908) reported that the wood bison was 

 "nearly a thing of the past ... In the winter of 1887-88, 

 on the headwaters of Hay River, which flows into Great 

 Slave Lake, and west of Battle River, a tributary of the Peace, 

 the Indians saw three bands containing 17, 10, and 4, respec- 

 tively; they killed 5 ... The same winter three bands 

 were seen between Salt River and Peace Point, on Peace 

 River, numbering 50, 25, and about 25, respectively . . . 

 During the winter of 1886-87, between the north end of Birch 

 and the south end of Thickwood Mountains, distant about 

 one day or 30 miles from Fort McMurray, on Athabasca River, 

 one band of about 13 was seen. Since then 5 of this band have 

 been killed. Below Red River, a tributary of the Athabasca, 

 and between Birch Mountains and Athabasca River, and 

 ranging down to Poplar Point, on the Athabasca, another band 

 said to contain about 20 was seen. Altogether we have only 

 about 180 head of wood buffalo in this vast extent of territory. " 

 In 1891 the same explorer estimated the wood-buffalo popula- 

 tion as not exceeding 300 in all. He speaks of the Indian 

 method of killing them by stampeding the animals into a bog 

 where they soon become mired and are easily slaughtered. 



In February, 1894, Caspar Whitney "estimated the total 

 number then living as about 150" (Preble, 1908). That the 

 numbers were indeed low is indicated by the fact that Preble 

 on his journey through their region in 1903 and 1904 was able 

 to obtain but few reports of their presence. In the winter of 

 1902-3 he found two small bands, aggregating 24 individuals, 



