-46 The American Naturalist. [January, 
miles from the Fort. During the winter, he traveled between twenty- 
one and twenty-two hundred miles on snow-shoes, driving his own dog- 
team and living, in almost all respects, the life of an Indian. He found 
it necessary to depend on himself alone, the natives being entirely un- 
reliable. His more important excursions from Fort Rae were as fol- 
lows: 
A trip up the Yellow-Knife River to learn, if possible, incite 
of the summer fauna of Barren Ground, and to secure the services of 
an Indian who had been recommended as trustworthy, but proved 
more of a hindrance than an aid. 
Next, about five hundred miles were traveled in hunting for the Bar- 
ren Ground caribou. A sufficient number were killed to secure a large 
supply of meat, and eleven skins and skulls of selected specimens were 
added to the collection, which has since arrived safely at Iowa City. 
In midwinter, December and January, a long and arduous trip was 
taken in the hope of securing specimens of the wood buffalo, a variety 
of the American buffalo which still inhabits the region lying to the 
south and southwest of the Great Slave Lake. During this trip, Mr. 
Russell swung around a circle in which the whole of the Great Slave 
Lake was included, and also the territory for one hundred miles or 
_more to the southwest. No wood buffalo were seen, nor even traces of 
them, although the very heart of their supposed range was traversed. 
Mr. Russell heard that two specimens had been killed that winter by 
the Indians, but they were apparently all that had been seen. He con- 
-siders the race as almost exterminated, as their range is = by 
the Indian hunters, as very limited. 
During March and April our explorer accomplished the main purpose 
for which he went north, i. e.,the capture of a series of musk-ox. The 
difficulties overcome at this time were such as to demonstrate the fact 
that Mr. Russell must take rank among the very foremost of plucky 
and persevering explorers in the far north. The musk-ox were four 
hundred miles from Fort Rae and two hundred miles from the edge of 
the woods. The Indians were unwilling to aid the explorer, having a 
firm belief that if a musk-ox were taken from the Barren Ground, and 
mounted in some distant country, all the others would go to join it. 
“Those who have had to do with Indian superstition know the hopeless- 
ness of arguments, bribes or threats in such cases. Undismayed by 
this unforseen and seemingly fatal obstacle; Mr. Russell allowed the 
Indians to depart without him, well knowing that it is their custom to 
-camp on the edge of the Barren Ground for some time for the purpose 
-of killing caribou before going on the long musk-ox hunt, and know- 
