66 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIII, 



in 1848 there was an abundance of deer and buffalo meat obtain- 

 able on the Salt Plains." ' 



Still later information is furnished by Thomas Johnson, in a 

 quotation from the report of Game Inspector Jarvis to the Cana- 

 dian Government, published in ' Forest and Stream ' for Oct. 

 23, 1897 (Vol. XLIX, p. 323). His inspection of the region 

 embracing the present range of the Bison was made in 1897, and 

 in his report he says : " I have taken great pains in making as 

 thorough inquiries as possible in connection with the buffalo, 

 their habits, number, and range. The range of a scattered band 

 of about 300 is from Peace Point to Salt River, and from Salt 

 River to within twenty miles of Fort Resolution, on Great Slave 

 Lake. I met a Mr. Handbury, an English sportsman, who is 

 on a hunting expedition. He had just returned from an unsuc- 

 cessful buffalo hunt, but he saw fresh tracks and beds of about 

 sixty buffalo. Mr. Handbury returns this year, but the fear of a 

 $200 fine will hardly prevent his hunt. . . . If it be the 

 intention of the Government to protect these nearly extinct 

 animals, it can only be done by placing officials on the spot. 

 I have in the case of buffalo and other game impressed on all 

 hunters and other interested persons the necessity of obeying 

 the game act, and have left printed notices where practicable." 



Mr. Rhoads, in his ' Notes on Living and Extinct Species of 

 North American Bovidae ' (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 

 1897, p. 497), published a letter from Mr. H. I. Moberly, of the 

 Hudson Bay Company, dated Nov. 9, 1897, in which Mr. Mo- 

 berly states : " They lived formerly from the beginning of the 

 wooded country north of the Saskatchewan to Great Slave Lake, 

 and further north along the east slope of the Rocky Mountains. 

 At present there are not more than two hundred and fifty to three 

 hundred alive, and they are in two bands, one on the lower Peace 

 River, north of it, and run from close to Great Slave Lake at 

 Peace Point, which is some ninety miles below Fort Vermillion. 

 The other is on the upper Hay River and ranges between Peace 

 River and Liard River, and run down some two hundred and 

 fifty miles east of the Rocky Mountains and up to the foot of the 

 Rocky Mountains." 



This brings the history down to Mr. Stone's report, published 



1 Arctic Searching Expedition, p. 149. 



