"The buffalo are not yet extinct in the Northwest. There are still some stray ones on the prairies away to the south of this, but they must be very few. I am unable to find any one who has personal knowledge of the killing of one during the last two years, though I have since the receipt of your letter questioned a good many half-breeds on the subject. In our district of Athabasca, along the Salt River, there are still a few wood buffalo killed every year, but they are fast diminishing in numbers and are also becoming very shy." In his "Manitoba and the Great Northwest" Prof. John Macoun has this to say regarding the presence of the wood buffalo in the region referred to: "The wood buffalo, when I was on the Peace River in 1875, were confined to the country lying between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers north of latitude 57° 30', or chiefly in the Birch Hills. They were also said to be in some abundance on the Salt and Hay Rivers, running into the Save River north of Peace River. The herds thirteen years ago [now nineteen] were supposed to number about one thousand, all told. I believe many still exist, as the Indians of that region eat fish, which are much easier procured than either buffalo or moose, and the country is much too difficult for white men." All this evidence, when carefully considered, resolves itself into simply this and no more: The only evidence in favor of the existence of any live buffaloes between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers is in the form of very old rumors, most of them nearly fifteen years old; time enough for the Indians to have procured fire-arms in abundance and killed all those buffaloes two or three times over. Mr. Miller Christy takes "the mean of the estimates," and assumes that there are now about five hundred and fifty buffaloes in the region named. If we are to believe in the existence there of any stragglers his estimate is a fair one, and we will gladly accept it. The total is therefore as follows: +-------------------------------------------------+ | _Number of American bison running wild | | and unprotected on January 1, 1889._ | +-------------------------------------------------+ |In the Pan-handle of Texas | 25| |In Colorado | 20| |In southern Wyoming | 26| |In the Musselshell country, Montana | 10| |In western Dakota | 4| | |---| | Total number in the United States | 85| |In Athabasca, Northwest Territory (estimated)|550| | |---| | Total in all North America |635| +-------------------------------------------------+ Add to the above the total number already recorded in captivity (256) and those under Government protection in the Yellowstone Park (200), and the whole number of individuals of _Bison americanus_ now living is 1,091.