May 11, 1893. J 



FOREST AND STREAM 



403 



WOOD BISON AND MUSK OX. 



By courtesy of Mr. George Johnson, chief statistician 

 at Ottawa, Canada, I have been placed in possession of 

 published official notes of Mr. William Ogilvie, Dominion 

 land surveyor, made in Government interest during the 

 past six years along the basins of the Mackenzie and 

 Peace rivers, in the British Northwest Territory, which 

 give much information of especial value regrarding the 

 natural products of that vast region including the big 

 game fauna. Of these perhaps the most interesting and 

 the least known are the wood bison and musk ox. 



A birdseye view of an area 2,000 miles in length by 

 1,000 miles in breadth, lying west of the Mackenzie River 

 discovers it to be mainly forested and mountainous, with 

 abundant streams, while the extensive barren ground 

 region lying east of that river and north of the Goth 

 parallel of latitude is chiefly moss-covered plain, 

 intersjjersed with small patches of willow and 

 coarse grass and pools of water, sloughs, bogs and 

 swamps alternating with bare ridges of rock, 

 frozen up for about six months in the year. Each 

 of these distinct regions has its peculiar fauna. 

 The fii'st is the home of the wood bison, moose, 

 elk, mountain sheep, goat and woodland caribou, 

 and the latter of the musk ox, ice bear, reindeer 

 and blue and white fox, though the country as now 

 found is not comprehensively the bleak, inhospit- 

 able, desolate, unknown and inaccessible "great 

 lone land," which it persistently remained for more 

 tlia.n two centuries. Within the past ten years its 

 development has kept pace with jirogress every- 

 where else. Eailroads reach out to its hithermost 

 confines. Steamboats ply on every principal lake 

 and river. Tramways flank obstructions to fluvial 

 navigation. Missions and towns have sprung up 

 around the principal trading posts and at eligible 

 commercial points. Roman Catholic and Church 

 of England bishoprics cover all the territory. Steam 

 flour mUls and sawmills hum and whirr afar up 

 under the edse of the Arctic belt. Even veget- 

 ables and grains thrive and mature where it was 

 thought they could not possibly endure. The town 

 of Edmonton, on the Saskatchewan River, 1,000 

 miles northwest from Winnipeg, is but a five days' 

 all rail jom-ney from Ottawa, and with a supple- 

 mentary jaunt of less than 100 miles across countiy 

 to the Athabaska River, one can take steamboat at 

 Athabaska Landing and sail down to the Mackenzie 

 River delta, on the shore of the Arctic Ocean in 

 less than 20 days' time! 



Such encroachments of civilization and facili- 

 ties of access make it hard on the musk ox and 

 bison, for even now sportsmen have begun to hunt 

 specimens of horns and pelts for museum collec- 

 tions. It is well, therefore, for naturalists to note 

 what Mr. Ogilvie, surveyor, has to say of the big 

 game of this imperial territory as it is found in its 

 stamping grounds to-day, for only a few more 

 years are likely to change existing conditions 

 essentially. 



Imprimis, as to wood bisons: Our authority, in 

 his report of 1887-8, on the physiography of the 

 Peace and Mackenzie river basins, after specifying 

 the whereabouts of known bands of buffalo seen 

 the previous winter, reckons their number at only 

 about 180, yet five years later, in his report of 1892, 

 with extended observation and sources of informa- 

 tion, he is able to place the number as "probably 

 not exceeding 300 in all." Bands of 50, 25, 30, 13, 

 35, 20 and 5, respectively, are enumerated. This 

 apparent increase is gratifying in view of the 

 attested fact that the Indians always endeavor to 

 kill the whole band wherever they find them, 

 whether they need food or not. It is their habit to 

 drive the animals into a bog, if one be convenient, 

 where they soon mire and are quickly killed. For- 

 tunately, however, the bison are so wary, and so 

 keen to see and smell the hunter before he knows 

 of their pi-esence, that they stampede at the first 

 alarm, never halting until they are well out of 

 danger. Their flight through the snow, as de- 

 scribed by an eye witness, resembles the whirl of a 

 rotary snow-plow with an occasional glimpse of a 

 black spot in the center of it. 



The haunt of the wood bison lies north and west 

 of the Athabaska River, across the Peace to the 

 Liard River. Occasionally they have been seen in 

 the mountains back of Fort Liard. They graze in 

 the little upland parks and court the cover of the 

 thickets. The paucity of their numbers, in contrast 

 with their great abmidance half a century ago, 

 seems inexplicable, as there is no record of any 

 undue slaughter at any time by natives or traders. As 

 recently as twenty-five years ago it was no uncommon 

 thing for a few of the Indians in the neighborhood of 

 Dimvegan and St. John (H. B. C. posts on Peace River) to 

 go out and procure in a few days' time sufficient meat to 

 sujjply their wants for the winter. One explanation of 

 the mortality is that a heavy fall of rain, followed by a 

 sharp freeze, occurred in " one of the winter months 

 twenty-five years ago, which formed an impenetrable 

 crust of ice, so that all animals which could not subsist 

 on browse were nearly exterminated by starvation. But 

 it is objected that a rainstorm could hardly have been ex- 

 tensive enough to cover the Entire vast territory, and if 

 so where are the bones of the bison? 



While naturalists hardly admit two species of buffalo, 

 the fact of the wood bison having inhabited a forested 

 country as far back as Hudson Bay Go's historical records 

 go, and not being refugees from massacres of the plains, 

 as has been urged, shows marked change of habit and 

 appearance by environment. Size and color may thus be 

 accounted for. 



As for the musk-ox, he inhabits a much more inacces- 

 sible country than the wood buffalo. Still to reach the 

 confines of liis isolated home is little more than a pleasure 

 trip, with the means of travel now available, and the 

 fame of Mr. Warburton Pike, wlio recently peneti-ated 

 to the hyperborean tnndi-a and assisted in the slaughter 

 of sixty musk-oxen and ninety caribou, according to his 

 own published statement, is tempting others to strike out 

 .for tliis field of exploitation and dubious surprise, so that 



Mr. Ogilvie, with much concern, is asking whether it is 

 not admissible for Government to prohibit killing by out- 

 siders, except by permit, at any season. Musk-oxen run 

 in bands to the number of thirty in each. They are fleet 

 of foot, but not at all shy and are easily slaughtered by 

 the Indians, who drive them into pens or corrals. The 

 female drops but one calf at a birth, generally in the 

 month of April. It is said that she buries it in the snow 

 as soon as born, selecting some sheltered spot exposed to 

 the rays of the sun for the pm-pose. Three days after birth 

 tlie young one is able to run with the dam, 

 . The range of the musk-ox is from Hudson's Bay to the 

 fringe of woods lying along the east side of the Mackenzie 

 River, and from the Ai-ctic coast southward to the east of 

 Athabaska Lake. In winter the bands move southward 

 toward the timber line. Pelts of musk-oxen are found 

 among the collection returns of all of the twenty-eight fur 

 posts situated in the Northwest Territory, 



At Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie River, the Hudson 

 Bay Company has a most interesting museum which was 



"LISTEN." 



Equal Fifth Prize, Forest and Stream Amateur Photography Competition. 

 Photo by Col. Cecil Clay, AVashington, D, C. 



organized in the year 1887, for the purpose of coUect- 

 ing and preserving all the animals and birds and other 

 fauna of the country, as well as minerals, fossils and any 

 curiosities of interest, including aboriginal implements, 

 bones, etc. Capt. Bell, of the steamer Wrigley, navigat- 

 ing the lower Mackenzip, is a taxidermist of great skill, 

 who devotes constant attention to mounting stuffed speci- 

 mens. Normally, this is one of the most important special 

 museums in the new world, and shotild receive the aid 

 and encouragement of all lovers of natural history and 

 science. Plants are not represented, but there are some 

 fossil star fish and ichthyc vertebrce of large size. The 

 possibilities of this embryo collection are great. 



Chakles Hallock. 



SPRING NOTES. 



HiOHGATE, Va., April 24— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I send you a few additional notes regarding the arrival 

 of birds here: 



Phebe bird, April 4, several pairs noted; hermit 

 thrush, April 4, heard in warm thicket on south side of 

 a deep ravine; song sparrow, April 5, one only; crow 

 blackbird, April 6, several seen; blue heron, April 10, one 

 only; wild pigeons, April 20, three seen. We have a few 

 wild pigeons that breed near here that we are trying to 

 protect. Stanstead. 



Detroit, Aprfl 30,— In spite of the inclement weather 

 the birds are putting in their appearaace. The .wood 



thrushes ai-rived April 29, though one was seen April 9; 

 brown thrasher, April 16; barn swallow, April 16; bank 

 swallow, April 16; tree swaUow, April 16; crested fly- 

 catcher, April 17; purple martin, April 28; belted king- 

 fisher, April 2; Wilson's snipe, March 28, Yesterday 

 (April 29) I took a set of two Cooper's hawk's eggs from a 

 tall beech, 75ft, up. This hawk is a rare breeder here and 

 this is the first nest I have found. Also took set of four 

 crow's eggs from oak tree 50ft. up. B. H. S, 



AMONG MICHIGAN BIRDS. 



There are so many secrets waiting to be divulged to 

 one who will patiently look up, or down, in sky, tree, 

 bush, or on the ground, for a little time each day from 

 the early spring to the veiy end of winter, that it is a 

 ity so few are receiving the benefit such pretty con- 

 dences impart to the monotony of ererj day life. 

 It is to the many who are not in touch with nature and 

 her lovely children that I would like to tell how 

 observation taught a very loving but ignorant 

 friend of the birds a fact long since estabhshed 

 among the wise ones, that they do follow in the 

 wake of civilization. 



Expatriation for many years from the land where 

 the robin sings and rears his young had made the 

 prospect of seeing liim once more in all his happy 

 cheerfulness a thing to be looked forward to witli 

 joyous anticipation, and when in 1886 I began to 

 spend my summers at one of the "resorts" in 

 northern Michigan, I confidently expected to re- 

 new acquaintance with Mm and all the other 

 familiar friends of childhood. 



But no, there were no robins there, and only 

 once the long-drawn plaintive notes of the peewee 

 came to break the stillness of the woods. One 

 cunning pair of wrens had built their nest close by 

 the noisy railway station, where Mr. Jenny sang 

 and Mrs. Jenny scolded, just as they do wherever 

 wrens are found the whole world over. Later in 

 the season my not« book tells of one or two stray 

 visits from some titmice, but that there were any 

 other singers is quite impossible. 



The cottages spread over more territoiy each 

 year, the farmers in the adjacent country culti- 

 vated more fruit and vegetables, and every summer 

 the number of feathered visitors increased until 

 last year the woods seemed fuU of them. We 

 reached that northern clime the first day of July, 

 and there was robin, hopping about as thoroughly 

 at ease as the "oldest" summer tourist. He buHt 

 his nest in trees whose branches grazed the most 

 populous of the cottages, and almost every porch 

 at We-que-ton-sing could boast of having given 

 shelter to a brood of Jenny wren's small progeny. 

 Boxes and pretty little houses had been put up on 

 many trees in the park at Chautauqua's center at 

 Bay View, and long before the Assembly opened 

 the little homes were occupied. The evening and 

 morning concerts were regular, and quite what 

 was expected from such .singers. 



Above them all the lusty voice of robin soared 

 in amusing contrast to the plaintive song of blue- 

 bird, peewee, and that grandest of all om- wood- 

 land songsters, the bell-toned wood thrush. The 

 orchestra was full indeed, for besides those men- 

 tioned there were the little spaz-rows — song, field 

 and white-throat, phoebes, jays, blackbirds, gold- 

 finches, woodpeckers, titmice, cuckoos and many 

 and many a crow. Twice dmlng the summer it 

 was our good fortune to hear the far-off notes of 

 whip-poor-will, whose song is so much sweeter 

 than that of his Southern relative, who cuts his 

 words so short that one longs to teach him how 

 his more accomplished brother sings. 



Alas! the woods seem dull and silent, when the 

 birds have ceased to sing, as happens the very first 

 of August, and if one walks about in them, where 

 all before was life and music, a feeling of sadness 

 comes that bears close resemblance to that experi- 

 enced by one when left almost alone in some great 

 hall at the close of a concert of more than ordinary 

 grandeur. One sees, as in a dream, the crowd 

 melt silently awaj% and one by one the orchestra 

 file out. 



A curious solemn feeling quite overwhelms one, 

 and the conviction settles like a pall upon the 

 thoughts that never again will music like that be 

 heard. 



Happily the analogy ceases just here, for the 

 air, the scent of the earth, tlie sunshine on path, 

 the rustle of leaves and the faces of flowers assure 

 one that when the spring time comes the birds 

 will return to take their places in nature's ever 

 constant orchestra. H. L. M. 



The Woodcock's Ways. 



Highland, N. C, May 1. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 A correspondent a short time ago asked some questions 

 about the feeding of woodcock" I have noticed them 

 every spring in my garden here quite early in the morn- 

 ing in small companies diligently boring for worms, which 

 they take in large numbers, 



This morning, just at daNra, when the moon had got to 

 the western horizon and the light was just sufficient to 

 make things barely visibly at a distance of 20 or 30ft., I 

 heard a curious noise outside and got out of bed to find 

 the cause of it. It was close under my window, which is 

 on the ground floor and looks out into the garden. Two 

 woodcocks were fighting furiously, while ten more were 

 busy in the soft soil digging for worms. This part of my 

 garden is a worm preserve, used for grathering bait when 

 fish are wanted in a hurry and the trout are not eager for 

 the fly. By and by the quan-eling birds made peace and 

 went to feeding with the rest, and after watching them 

 for several minutes I returned to the warm bed for a 

 sliort doze before getting up time. Soon after five I got 

 up and looked out of the window, and the twelve wood- 

 cock were still busy digging for worms, and kept at it 

 untill went out, when they took their departure. 



This bird is not protected in this State, but on account 

 of the season I did not disturb them. Two years ago, I 

 think early in July, in the same part of the garden I saw 

 a pair of woodcock with a brood of young ones feeding 

 about the same time in the morning (Sv a little later, as 

 the fight was sufficient to distinguish the markings of 



