1908.] 



MAMMALS. 



149 



In a journal of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Simpson I 

 found mention of two buffalo bulls killed April 29, 1831, near the 

 mouth of Martin Kiver, a small stream which enters the Mackenzie 

 from the west 8 miles beloAv Fort Simpson. The occurrence of the 

 animals at this point was said to be unique in the experience of the 

 natives, and this note probably constitutes the northernmost known 

 record of the occurrence of the recent animal on the Mackenzie. 



About thirty years ago, according to testimony received from sev- 

 eral independent sources, about 90 buffaloes were drowned in a 

 small lake whose outlet, about 20 miles in length, and apparently 

 the Petite Riviere Bouffante of Bell's map, enters the Athabaska 

 near Boiler Rapid from the southward. The animals attempted 

 to cross the lake during the early part of the winter before the ice 

 had formed sufficiently to bear their weight, and were precipitated 

 into the water, from which they were unable to escape. The ice 

 formed about their bodies, and in this natural refrigerator their flesh 

 Avas preserved, and provided a ready means of subsistence to numbers 

 of the natives who resorted to the place for the winter. 



During our visits to the region we w^ere unable to get very definite 

 information as to the present range and number of bison, owing to 

 the fact that press of other work made it impossible for us to visit 

 their haunts. Reports from the natives were unsatisfactory, since 

 much of the country inhabited by the bison is not well stocked with 

 large game of other species, and the hunters do not cover it so thor- 

 oughly as formerly. « All those best qualified to express an opinion 

 were unanimous on one point, that the herds are much harassed by 

 wolves, and that unless something is done to reduce the numbers of 

 these fierce animals, the total extermination of the bison is inevitable. 

 Merritt Gary obtained the following definite note from Mr. Brabant. 

 Hudson's Bay officer at Fort Smith. During the winter of 1902-3 

 two small bands, aggregating 24 individuals, ranged over the region 

 five or six days' journey (about 125 miles) southwest of Fort Smith. 

 Here a band of 8 was tracked several times in the dense forests, and 

 another of 16 ranged about the southern edge of the Salt Plains, a 

 prairie region of indefinite extent about the upper part of Salt River. 

 The natives reported that these bands contained no yearlings or 

 2-year-olds, all of the young ones having been killed by wolves, which 

 have been unusually numerous for several years past. 



The latest definite information in regard to the wood bison is incor- 

 porated in the report of Inspector A. M. Jarvis of the Royal North- 

 west Mounted Police, who, in cooperation with Ernest Thompson 



"With the exception of one year, the killing of bison has been prohibited in 

 the Northwest Territories since 1893. (The Game Ordinance No. S of 1S93, 

 sec. 3.) 



