n6 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



is known of the wood-bison, except that he is gradually 

 going the way of the plains species, from the difficulties 

 of maintaining an existence where climate, pasturage, and 

 man are all against him. Recently a law has been passed 

 by the Canadian government prohibiting their killing, but 

 it will be impossible to enforce it, since no mundane po wet- 

 could stop a starving Indian from shooting if he got the 

 opportunity. A check can be put to sending out the hide, 

 but that would not prevent killing for the meat. More- 

 over, my inquiry did not discover any 

 wholesale slaughter of these animals. 



Some thirty years ago a sudden and 

 exceptional thaw in midwinter, followed 

 by a severe storm and bitter cold, that cov- 

 ered the snow with ice which the bison 

 could not break, caused the death of a very 

 great many from starvation and freezing. 

 Again, three years ago (1892), another thaw 

 and storm gave the Indians an opportuni- 

 ty for that diabolical diversion of crusting, 

 by which method some men reared in the 

 civilized world hunt deer and moose to 

 this day, and about fifty bison were then 

 run down and killed. But these were un- 

 usual occasions. Bison are not being killed 



o 



in large numbers nor shot frequently as in- 

 dividuals. They range over a country too 

 large and too difficult to reach, and require more skilful 

 hunting than the average Indian is capable of. When I 

 was in the country in the winter of 1894-5 not even a bi- 

 son track had been seen up to the time of our hunt, and 

 the head I obtained through the kindness of Dr. Mackay 

 was the last one shot, and that two years before. So the 

 extermination of wood -bison through their hunting by 



LOUCHEUX SHOE 

 6 feet long 



