132 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



received from all the provinces, exception being taken to a few details 

 by two of them. An Order in Council* was thereupon passed advising 

 the Governor General to inform the United States Government that 

 the Canadian Government is favourably disposed towards the con- 

 clusion of the proposed treaty. The ratification of this treaty will 

 undoubtedly mean a very long step towards an adequate bird protective 

 scheme embracing the whole Dominion. 



There are two other questions which have already 

 Wild Bison . . ,7 ... j- ^i • /-> 



or Wood received the sympathetic consideration of this Com- 



Buffalo mission. The first of these is the preservation of the 



wild bison. This animal, commonly known as the wood buffalo, 

 represents the last of the wild herds of this continent. It inhabits 

 the district lying between the Peace and the Slave rivers and westward 

 in the direction of the Caribou mountains. Its numbers are vari- 

 ously estimated at from 300 to 500 head, but all authorities agree that 

 it is apparently diminishing in numbers. This animal probably repre- 

 sents the finest species of bison now existent. It is larger, darker 

 and hardier than the plains buffalo, which is the species forming 

 the Government herd at Wainwright. Outside of the interest which 

 it excites, the Parks Branch, which does not at present exercise any 

 administration over the herd, is anxious to secure its protection also 

 because it appears to offer an unequalled source from which the 

 Government herd may be replenished. One of the important ques- 

 tions continually confronting those in charge of the Canadian buffalo 

 is the maintenance of the herd at a high standard. 



Although the danger is far from imminent, there is a tendency 

 wherever wild animals are restricted in range and where inbreeding 

 necessarily occurs, for the type to deteriorate. In the case of the 

 buffalo at Wainwright, the result of this may become manifest in, say, 

 15 years when, at the present rate of increase, the herd may number 

 20,000 individuals. If, however, there is from time to time an infusion 

 of new and vigorous blood into the herd, there is little danger of 

 deterioration. Unfortunately, there are, however, very few sources 

 available from which pure, vigorous, unrelated stock can be secured 

 and there is apparently no source so desirable as the wood bison of 

 the north. 



At present the wood bison ranges in scattered bands over an 

 immense and remote territory, preyed upon by wolves, white trappers 

 and possibly Indians, and no proper protection is afforded it, such as it 



*See page 141. 



