178 THEOUGH THE MACKEi;rZIE BASIN" 



secured a number in autumn and winter. Having seen the 

 skins of numerous prairie buffalo many years ago, and those 

 of several of the woodland variety, I think the only marked 

 difference I noticed was that the outer hair of the latter is 

 darker in color, and the inner is of a finer, thicker, and 

 probably warmer texture than that of the former, while it is 

 doubtful if the average " dressed beef " of either animal of 

 the same age would materially differ in weight. In the 

 winter of 1871-72 an Indian shot an albino example of /the 

 bison some 35 miles north-west of Eort McMurray. The skin 

 was throughout of a faint yellowish white color. I have 

 been repeatedly assured by Indians that the female very 

 rarely has more than one calf at a birth. They have also 

 said that, in winters of deep snow, wolves succeed in destroy- 

 ing some animals. They themselves have too often been 

 guilty of unnecessary slaughter of bison under similar con- 

 ditions, especially in former years. In the month of March, 

 1879, a small band of Chipewyan Indians discovered traces 

 of a herd, consisting of twenty animals of various ages, near 

 the Birch Mountain, and the snow being deep they did not 

 suffer even one to escape. ISTone of the flesh, however, was 

 wasted ; all of it was consumed by the party. The Company 

 never exported any woodland bison skins for sale in London 

 or Canada. Mr. P. Deschambeault remembers seeing, in the 

 early fifties of the last century, two fine albino examples of 

 the prairie buffalo in possession of Chief Factors John 

 Rowand and Jiames Gr. Stewart, both of which had been 

 secured on the plains of the upper Saskatchewan Kiver. 



CARNIVORA. 



Cawada Lynx — Lynx canadensis Kerr. 



This is one of the principal periodic fur-bearing animal.s 

 which regularly increase and decrease .in nuinbers abont 

 every decade. The experience of observers, largely corrobor; 

 ated by the Company's London sales, is pretty miich as 



