1900.] Allen, Note on the Wood Bison. 65 



take themselves to instant flight, and, as with the moose, pursuit 

 is altogether futile. They cannot be hunted in summer as the 

 country which they inhabit is an impenetrable, mosquito-infested, 

 wooded swamp at that season. . . . They can only be killed 

 by stalking in midwinter when their pelage is at its best. 



" The Indians along the Peace and Slave Rivers make occa- 

 sional trips into the buffalo country with dog teams to establish 

 lines of marten traps. When they discover a band of buffaloes 

 they of course kill as many as they can, but they have not made 

 systematic efforts to hunt them for their robes, as they have the 

 musk-ox. Fortunately, the officers of the Company have exerted 

 their influence toward the preservation of the buffalo, not trading 

 for the robes, until the recent advent of rival traders. During 

 the winter of 1892-3 forty buffaloes were killed, the largest num- 

 ber that had been secured for several years. I saw most of these 

 robes which were very dark, the hair thick and curled, mak- 

 ing a robe superior to that of either musk-ox or plains buffalo ; 

 they were so large that the Indians had cut many of them in 

 halves for convenience in hauling on the sleds. 



" From 20 to 100 MB [$io to $50] are paid for the robes. 

 The traders are trying to induce the Indians to preserve them as 

 mountable skins. 



" The northern limit of the range of the buffalo, as given by 

 Mackenzie, was the Horn Mountains, north of the Little Lake. 

 Pere Ruore, of the Saint Michael Mission at Rae, who has 

 crossed the Rae-Providence traverse several times, assured me 

 that he had seen buffalo skulls on the prairies which lie within 

 fifty miles of Providence, northwest of the western end of the 

 Great Slave Lake. I saw no remains of buffaloes when I crossed 

 these prairies in December, owing to the snow, but the country 

 is similar to that south of the lake where they are still found. 



" Black Head, an old Yellow Knife chief, living at the mouth 

 of the Riviere au Jean, told me that he had killed ' plenty of 

 buffaloes ' in the delta of the Slave River. About fifteen years 

 ago a few were killed near Liard, but they are seldom seen in that 

 quarter. They formerly frequented the * Salt Plains/ forty miles 

 northeast of Fort Smith. Franklin's party killed a buffalo in that 

 vicinity at the time of their visit in 1820.' Richardson states that 



1 Sir John Franklin, Narrative, p. 177. 

 [April, JQOO.~\ 5 



