524 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



u The doctor also quoted Mr. Frank Oliver, of Edmonton, to the effect 

 that the wood buffalo still exists in small numbers between the Lower 

 Peace and Great Slave Rivers, extending westward from the latter to 

 the Salt River in latitude 60 degrees, and also between the Peace and 

 Athabasca Rivers. He states that ' they are larger than the prairie 

 buffalo, and the fur is darker, but practically they are the same animal. 7 

 * * * Some buffalo meat is brought in every winter to the Hudson's 

 Bay Company's posts nearest the buffalo ranges. 



"Dr. Schulz further stated that he had received the following tes- 

 timony from Mr. Donald Ross, of Edmonton: The wood buffalo still 

 exists in the localities named. About 1870 one was killed as far west 

 on Peace River as Fort Dunvegan. They are quite different from the 

 prairie buffalo, being nearly double the size, as they will dress fully 

 700 pounds." 



It will be apparent to most observers, I think, that Mr. Ross's state- 

 ment in regard to the size of the wood buffalo is a random shot. 



In a private letter to the writer, under date of October 22, 1887, Mr. 

 Harrison S. Young, of the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Edmonton, 

 writes as follows : 



" The buffalo are not yet extinct in the Northwest. There are still 

 some stray ones on the prairies away to the south of this, but they must 

 be very few. I am unable to find any one who has personal knowledge 

 of the killing of one during the last two years, though I have since the 

 receipt of your letter questioned a good many half-breeds on the sub- 

 ject. 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 his " Manitoba aud the Great Northwest " Prof. John Macoun has 

 this to say regarding the presence of the wood buffalo in the region re- 

 ferred to : 



" The wood buffalo, when I was on the Peace River in 1875, were 

 confined to the country lying between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers 

 north of latitude 57° 30', or chiefly in the Birch Hills. They were also 

 said to be in some abundance on the Salt and Hay Rivers, running into 

 the Slave River north of Peace River. The herds thirteen years ago 

 [now nineteen] were supposed to number about one thousand, all told. 

 I believe many still exist, as the Indians of that region eat fish, which 

 are much easier procured than either buffalo or moose, and the country 

 is much too difficult for white men." 



All this evidence, when carefully considered, resolves itself into sim- 

 ply this aud no more: The only evidence in favor of the existence of 

 any live buffaloes between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers is in the 

 form of very old rumors, most of them nearly fifteen years old: time 

 enough for the Indians to have procured fire-arms in abundance and 

 killed all those buffaloes two or three times over. 

 Mr. Miller Christy takes " the mean of the estimates," and assumes 



