MAM]\IALS OF NORTHERN CANADA 177 



AYooDLAND Buffalo — Bison iison athahascce Rhoad. 



This variety of the American bison was fairly numerous 

 when I first went north to Mackenzie River, in 1853, but it 

 has since gradually diminished in numbers in the Athabasca 

 district, and its utter extermination is now only a question 

 of time, unless restrictive hunting rules are adopted without 

 delay. When Thomas Simpson, the celebrated Arctic ex- 

 plorer, travelled down the valley of the Clearwater River, in 

 January, 1837, traces of buffalo were quite albundant, but 

 for the last forty years they have practically forsaken that 

 quarter and have dwindled so greatly in number that only 

 a few individuals are now to be met with in open spaces and 

 patches of prairie lin sections on the west side of the 

 Athaibasca River, between Fort McMurray and the Birch 

 Mountain, as well as in similar tracts of country from Pointe 

 a la Paix, on the Lower Peace, to the plains of Salt River, in 

 latitude 60° north, which had from time immemorial been 

 regularly frequented and occupied by hordes of bison. At 

 the end of the eighteenth and in the earlier part of the nine- 

 teenth century, buffalo were abundant on the Upper Peace 

 River, and many also roamed to the northwest as far as the 

 Liard River. Even as late as 1864 a straggler was killed 

 within 40 miles of the Company's post of that name, and 

 another in 1866 about 25 miles from the same. Sir, J. Rich- 

 ardson states that there were some ibison in the Horn Moun- 

 tain, south-ieast of Fort Simpson, in the beginning of the last 

 century (1800), while some were also met with on the east 

 side of the Athabasca, below and above Fort McMurray. 

 During a residence of fifteen years (1870 to 1885) at Fort 

 Chipewyan, Lake Athabasca, our native fort hunters never 

 failed in winter to kill one or more bison for the use of the 

 establishment, the meat of which was hauled thereto by the 

 Company's dogs and servants. Nearly all of them were 

 shot on the north side of the Lower Peace River. At that 

 time the Indians of Forts McMurray and Smith always 



