408 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



emasculated by wolves are often found on the prairies, where they grow 

 to an immense size; the skin of the buffalo ox is recognized by the 

 shortness of the wool and by its large dimensions. The skin of the so- 

 called wood buffalo is much larger than that of the common animal, the 

 the hair is very short, mane or hair about the neck short and soft, and 

 altogether destitute of curl, which is the common feature in the hair or 

 wool of the prairie animal. Two skius of the so-called wood buffalo, 

 which I saw at Selkirk Settlement, bore a very close resemblance to the 

 skin of the Lithuanian bison, judging from the specimens of that species 

 which I have since had an opportunity of seeing in the British Museum. 



" The wood buffalo is stated to be very scarce, and only found north 

 of the Saskatchewan and on the flanks of the Rocky Mountains. It 

 never ventures into the open plains. The prairie buffalo, on the con- 

 trary, generally avoids the woods in summer and keeps to the open 

 country; but in winter they are frequently found in the woods of the 

 Little Souns, Saskatchewan, the Touchwood Hills, and the aspen 

 groves ou the Qu'Appelle. There is no. doubt that formerly the prairie 

 buffalo ranged through open woods almost as much as he now does 

 through the prairies." 



Mr. Harrison S Young, an officer of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, 

 stationed at Fort Edmonton, writes me as follows in a letter dated Oc- 

 tober 22, 1887 : " In our district of Athabasca, along the Salt River, 

 there are still a few wood buffalo killed every year ; but they are fast 

 diminishing in numbers, and are also becoming very shy." 



In Prof. John Macoun's "Manitoba and the Great Northwest," page 

 342, there occurs the following reference to the wood buffalo: "In the 

 winter of 1870 the last buffalo were killed north of Peace River ; but in 

 1875 about one thousand head were still in existence between the Ath- 

 abasca and Peace Rivers, north of Little Slave Lake. These are called 

 wood buffalo by the hunters, but differ only in size from those of the 

 plain." 



In the absence of facts based on personal observations, I may be 

 permitted to advance an opinion in regard to the wood buffalo. 

 There is some reason for the belief that certain changes of form may 

 have taken place in the buffaloes that have taken up a permanent resi- 

 dence in rugged and precipitous mountain regions. Indeed, it is hardly 

 possible to understand how such a radical change in the habitat of an 

 animal could fail, through successive generations, to effect certain 

 changes in the animal itself. It seems to me that the changes which 

 would take place in a band of plains buffaloes transferred to a perma- 

 nent mountain habitat can be forecast with a marked degree of cer- 

 tainty. The changes that take place under such conditions in cattle, 

 swine, and goats are well known, and similar causes would certainly 

 produce similar results in the buffalo. 



The scantier feed of the mountains, and the great waste of vital 

 energy called for in procuring it, would hardly produce a larger buffalo 



