130 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 127. 



Whitelev. living on Sandy Creek, 20 miles south of Athabaska Land- 

 ing, tells me that the animal occasionally occurs there. 



During Alexander Mackenzie's exploration of Peace River, he 

 several times met Avith this species, and states that it abounded on 

 the plains on both sides of Peace Eiver near the trading post which 

 he established near the mouth of Smoky Eiver in the autumn of 1792,« 

 and on several occasions he noted it farther up the river. Harmon, 

 the next traveler to give a detailed account of this river, frequently 

 observed the wapiti, and refers to its general abundance in that 

 region as follows : " Throughout the whole course, from this fall 

 [Vermilion] nearly to the Rocln^ Mountains, at a little distance from 

 the river, on each side, there are plains of considerable extent, which 

 afford pasture for * * * the red deer or elk."^ He states that 

 the species was killed at Fort Dun vegan, and was seen between that 

 place and Fort St. John, during the autumn of 1810.^ Eichardson 

 says : " The icajnti is not known on Slave Eiver or Lake, but further 

 to the west it ranges as far north as the east branch of the Eiver of 

 the Mountains near the fifty-ninth parallel, where Mr. Murdoch 

 M'Pherson informs me that he has partaken of its flesh." Caspar 

 Whitney gives Victoria, on the Saskatchewan, between Edmonton 

 and Lac La Biche, as about the northern limit of the species in that 

 region in 1894.^ In 1896, while exploring between Jasper House 

 and Smoky Eiver, J. Alden Loring reported that a few were said 

 still to exist near the head of Pembina Eiver. where, however, during 

 recent years the Indians had nearly exterminated the species by 

 ' crusting.' Petitot relates that while traveling on the Athabaska 

 in June, 1879. he met two Cree hunters who had lately killed, among 

 other game, five wapiti: ^ and he writes me that in August, 1876. he 

 partook of elk's flesh in an Indian camp on the Athabaska above 

 House Eiver. 



Alces americanus Jardine. Eastern Moose. 



The moose occurs throughout the Athabaska and Mackenzie region^ 

 north to the limit of trees. (Fig. 11.) It is often seen by parties 

 descending the rivers, but we did not observe any during our first trip 

 in 1901. At the cabin of a trapper near the Boiler Eapid. Athabaska 

 Eiver. we saw a number of heads which had been taken in the vicinity 

 during the previous winter. One of these was a partial albino, a large 



« Voyages to Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. 130, 1801. 

 ^ Journal of Voyages and Travels, p. 174, 1820. 

 ^Ibid., pp. 185, 187, 1820. 



<^ Arctic Searching Expedition, I. p. 128, 1851. By tlie east branch of the 

 "River of the Mountains"' (Liard). Richardson meant Fort Nelson River. 

 (See note, p. 198, under Ochofona princeps.) 



^ On Snowshoes to Barren Grounds, p. 21, 1896. 



f Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc, 1883, p. 640. 



