THE BISON. 23 



The buffaloe was formerly found throughout the 

 whole territory of the United States, with the ex- 

 ception of that part which lies east of Hudson's river 

 and Lake Champ! ain, and of narrow strips of coast 

 on the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. These were 

 swampy and had probably low thick woods. Tiiat 

 it did not exist on the Atlantic coast is rendered 

 probable, from the circumstance that all the early 

 writers whom Mr. Calhoun has consulted on the 

 subject, and they are numerous, do not mention 

 them as existing then, but further back. Thomas 

 Morton, one of the first settlers of New England, 

 says, that the Indians " have also made description 

 of great heards of well growne beasts, that live 

 about the parts of this lake," Erocoise, now Lake 

 Ontario, "such as the christian world, (untile this 

 discovery,) hath not bin made acquainted with. 

 These beasts are of the bignesse of a cowe, their 

 flesh being very good foode, their hides good le- 

 ther, their fleeces very useful, being a kind of wolle, 

 as fine almost as the wolle of the beaver, and the 

 salvages do make garments thereof;" he adds,/* It 

 is tenne yeares since first the relation of these things 

 came to the eares of the English."* We have in- 

 troduced this quotation, partly with a view to show 

 that the fineness of the buffalo wool, which has 

 caused it within a few years, to become an object of. 



* New English Canaan, by Thomas Morton, Amsterdam, 

 1637, p. 98. 



