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Show - ' ' ' " s CANADIAN BUPrALOKgL tJka Their Kin ( Ih. Mala Tbrrtoa m lletll.ed to f-lllartlM. ft 'B The wood bison, aa thn burfakj ot jS British North America Is known, ap- pears to be doomed to extinction. 1 I A Allen ot the American Museum of 1 Natural History In hla notea on the 1 wood bison summarize the nnmber of these buffalo intimated to rxltl daring tbe last ten yearn an follows' Ratlmatn n In 1889 of Professor Hornaday, now m director of the New York Zoological jfi society 530, Iliitsell. U9I, a tew nun- K dred, Jarvls, U:i7, about 300, Mobeirly, A 1897, 3&0 to 300. and Slonc, 189), CO. 1 The home of the wood bison haa h-nen W In Ihe neighborhood nf tbe (Ircat Slave M lake In thn north went territory. Within f the last six yearn thesn bison seem tu n have worked northward, and Mr. Allen j saya. 'It la pretty safe to msuixhi thst they havo been exterminated entirely ja from their former range south nt tba 3 Peace river, and that a few years mors ffi wilt auRlco for their rurapleto extermination exterm-ination " Frank Kustell, who hunted tho wood bison n 1891 wrnto ot them In 1893, taylng "Tho herd at present ',' roniltla ot n few hundred only, Tbey ,, are tn wary that only one effective shot can be fired, when they betake them reives tn Instant night, nnd, m wltb ' t the moose, pursuit Is altogether futll. J They cannot Ira hunted In summer, as tbe country which tbey Inhabit la not- , qulto Infeatrd nnd n wooded swamp at thla sesson They ran only bo killed by stalking In midwinter, when thelt pelage Is at Ita best Thn IndliLt, along the Peaco and SUvo rivers make occasional trips Into tho buffalo country coun-try with dog teams to establish II net nt marten traps When they discover a bsnd of buffaloes, tbey, ot course, kill aa many us they ran, but (bey have not made ev.lcnisllc efforts! In himt(lhcm for their robes, as they hat tba in ink ox Fortunately thn ofDcent of tho company have, exerted thtlr lu- ' riuenco toward tho preservation nt the buffalo, not trading for the rohrtt unlit the recent advent of rival traders During Dur-ing tht winter of 1893-91 tuity buffaloes buffa-loes werei killed, the largest number tbat had been e ured for aeveral yearn. I saw most nf these robce, which wer very dark, the hair thick and rurle.1, making robo superior tn that of either eith-er musk ox or plains buffalo They were no largo that tbo Indiana bad tu cut many of them In half for convtt-nleuco convtt-nleuco In hauling on tho aledt Front , 110 to ISO Is paid for tho robea." |