1908.] 



MAMMALS. 



145 



During Franklin's first northern journey the detachment under Hood, 

 while descending the Athabaska a short distance above the lake, '* ob- 

 served the traces of herds of bulfaloes, where they had crossed the 

 river, the trees being trodden down and strewed, as if by a whirl- 

 wind.'' ^' One was killed by the party on Salt River, between the 

 Salt Plains and Slave River, during a short side excursion.^ Richard- 

 son, in 1829, speaks thus of the range of the animal : 



They still exist, however, in vast numbers in Louisiana, roaming in countless 

 herds over the prair-es that are watered by the Arkansa, Platte, Missouri, and 

 upper branches of the Saskatchewan and Peace rivers. Great Slave Lake, in 

 latitude 60°, was at one time the northern boundary of their range; but of late 

 years, according to the testimony of the natives, they have taken ])ossession of 

 the flat limestone district of Slave Point, on the north side of that lake, and 

 have wandered to the vicinity of Great Marten Lake, in latitude 63° or 64°. 

 As far as I have been able to ascertain, the limestone and sandstone forma- 

 tions lying between the great Rocky Mountain range and the lower eastern 

 chain of primitive rocks are the only districts in the fur countries that are 

 frequented by the bison. * * * They do not frequent any of the districts 

 formed of primitive rocks, and the limits of their range to the eastward within 

 the Hudson Bay Company's territories may be nearly correctly marked on the 

 map by a line commencing in longitude 97° on the Red River which flows into 

 the south end of Lake Winipeg, crossing the Saskatchewan to the westward of 

 Basquiau hill, and running from thence by the Athapescow to the east end of 

 Great Slave Lake.^ 



Since Mackenzie had found them on the north side of the Mackenzie 

 River near the Horn Mountains many years before this, it is probable 

 the animals reached Slave Point and Marten Lake from that direction. 



King, in his narrative of Back's expedition, mentions the occurrence 

 of the bison on the plains bordering Slave River f and Simpson saw 

 many tracks and a few- individuals on Clearwater River, near the 

 mouth of the Pembina, in June, 1837.^ In the summer of 1848 Rich 

 ardson was informed that bison frequented the Birch Mountains, west 

 of the lower Athabaska, in great numbers.'^ 



In 1877 Dr. J. A. Allen published a letter from E. W. Nelson, which 

 contained information concerning tlie bison, obtaiiied from two men 

 who had reached the Yukon through British America. An extract 

 follows : 



These gentlemen descended the Peace River and at about the one hundred 

 and eighteenth degree of longitude made a portage to Hay River, directly north. 

 On the portage they saw thousands of buffalo skulls and old trails, in some 

 instances two or three feet d?ep. Is: di::g cart ar.d west. They wintered on Hay 



a Narrative Journey to Polar Sea, p. 192, 1823. 

 ^ Ibid., p. 197, 1823. 



^ Fauna Boreali-Americana, I, p. 279, 1829. 



^ Narrative Journey to Arctic Ocean, I, p. 115, 1836. 



^ Narrative Discoveries on North Coast of America, pp. 60, 61, 1843. 



^ Arctic Searching Expedition, L p. 127, 1851. 



44131— No. 27—08 10 



