WOOD BISON 

 By M. S. Garretson 



THE Wood Bison of Northern Alberta, Canada, are the only 

 remnaiit living in a wild state of the species of bison that 

 formerly ranged in countless numbers oyer the western plains 

 of the United States and Canada. 



To the average person, the home of the Wood Bison, until 

 recent years, has been a veritable terra incognita, lying some- 

 wheres in Canada between the International boundary and the 

 North Pole. Fortunately for the buffalo the remoteness of their 

 present habitat io in a region so far removed from civilization 

 that it has not been coveted by the settler, and the buffalo are 

 as unmolested as they were 100 years ago. Some years ago the 

 Dominion Government took steps to prevent their total extinc- 

 tion by prohibiting the Indians and white hunters from killing 

 them. No permits to kill or capture specimens for scientific 

 purposes or otherwise were allowed to be issued, and as a fur- 

 ther means of protection a bounty was placed on timber wolves, 

 the only natural enemy of the buffalo, except man. The bounty 

 was made large enough to encourage the trapping and killing 

 of these animals by the natives of that district. To enforce ob- 

 servance of these regulations, they were placed in the hands 

 of the Royal North West Mounted Police and the effectiveness 

 of these measures have produced a noticeable increase in the 

 number of the herd. 



The range of the present herds lies between latitude 59 

 and 61 degrees north and longitude 112 and 114 degrees west. 

 It is bounded on the east by the Slave River, on the west by 

 the Cariboo Mountains, on the north by the Great Slave Lake 

 and on the south by the Peace River. Latitude 60 degrees cuts 

 the tract midway at about the line dividing the grounds of the 

 two herds. The northern herd is reported to roam between the 

 Buffalo and the Little Buffalo rivers. Near the east of this line 

 is Fort Snaith, a post lying on the boundary between Alberta 

 and the District of Mackenzie and just below the Slave River 

 rapids. The Southern range extends south from latitude 60 to 

 the Peace River. A belt of soft muskeg country separates the 

 two ranges and prevents migration from one to the other 



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