Article VI. -NOTE ON THE WOOD BISON. 

 By J. A. ALLEN. 



The Museum has recently obtained a head (skull and unmounted 

 head skin) of the Wood Bison, taken by Indians near Great Slave 

 Lake. The exact point is not known, but it is evidently a freshly 

 killed specimen, and is in excellent condition. It is a young male, 

 probably about four years old, the second upper molar being 

 wholly unworn, and the third molar not having yet broken through 

 its alveolus. Compared with specimens of the Plains Bison (ison 

 bison] of corresponding age, it is rather above the average size of 

 the latter, with the base of the horn cores relatively thicker. The 

 head skin has the whole pelage darker, softer, and more silky than 

 the Bison of the Plains, this specimen agreeing, in this respect, 

 with several mounted heads of the Wood Bison I have seen in 

 the possession of dealers within the last few years. 



The present specimen confirms, as far as it goes, the characters 

 recently assigned to the Wood Bison by Mr. S. N. Rhoads (Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1897, p. 488), and quite warrant its recog- 

 nition under the name Bison bison athabascce, applied to it by Mr. 

 Rhoads. Formerly it doubtless completely intergraded with the 

 southern form. Now that it is on the point of extinction, the fol- 

 lowing summary of its recent decadence may not be without 

 interest. 



As is well known, the American Bison formerly ranged contin- 

 uously from the northern boundary of the United States north- 

 ward over the Saskatchewan plains to the region about Great 

 Slave Lake, in latitude 60 north, and even, according to Rich- 

 ardson, 1 " to the vicinity of Great Marten Lake, in latitude 63 or 

 64." Their range in the north, as well as in the south, gradu- 

 ally became more and more restricted, the last remnants consist- 

 ing of only a few widely separated bands. 



There is abundant historic evidence to show that the Wood 

 Bison formerly ranged from the Liard River, in latitude 60, east- 

 ward to the eastern end of Great Slave Lake, and from the district 

 just northwest of Great Slave Lake southward, including the 

 half-open country on both sides of Great Slave River, to the 



*Fauna Bor.-Am., I, 1829, p. 279. 

 [63J 



