348 The Americmi Buffalo. 



Atlantic coast; how far north they extended is not exactly known. 

 Their existence in Pennsylvania, however, is substantiated by the 

 occurrence of bones of this species in alluvial deposits of rivers, 

 bogs, and caves. At the first settlement of Canada they were not 

 known there. As to their southern range, Lawson speaks of their 

 being found on Cape Fear River, in North Carolina. Theuet, in 

 the very rare work entitled " Les Singularitez de la France antarc- 

 tique," Paris, 1557, gives, (p. 147,) in a representation of a curi- 

 ous beast of West Florida, a readily recognisable figure of the buf- 

 falo. In the Hudson Bay country the}^ did not pass east of the 

 latitude of Red River ; south they were found throughout the Mis- 

 sissippi valley, the South Atlantic States, Texas, and Mexico. Their 

 western range was strictly limited to the Rocky Mountains, none 

 extending beyond." 



" At the present time none are found in the Atlantic States, nor 

 even east of the Missouri, except in Minnesota, in the region of 

 the upper Mississippi and the prairies of the Red River of the north. 

 Their main range, how^ever, is between the Missouri and the Rocky 

 Mountains, from Texas and New Mexico to the Saskatchewan, and 

 even as far north as Great Martin Lake, let. 64°. Of late years they 

 have found their way through the Rock\' Mountains to the plains 

 of the Columbia by the great middle pass, and north of this on 

 the head-waters of the Saskatchewan." 



" Imagination can scarcely realize the numbers of buffalo which, 

 even now, are found on the western plains. It is not uncommon 

 to see the prairies covered with them as far as the eye can reach ; 

 and travellers have passed through them for days and days in suc- 

 cession, with scarcely any apparent diminution in the mass. The 

 paths worn in the plains resemble more the beaten highways of 

 civilization than the mere aggregation of individual hoof-marks. 

 As their routes are, in most cases, selected with the unncrriug in- 

 stinct of animal existence, extending in a straight line from one 

 convenient crossing-place of river or ravine to another, and taking 

 the most available springs or streams in their course, they well 

 justify the remark of Mr. Benton as to their agency in defining 

 the high roads of travel across the prairies, for which they fre- 

 quently serve almost without an alteration." 



" Still, vast as these herds are, their numbers are much less than 

 in earlier times, and they are diminishing with fearful rapidity. 

 Every year sees more or less change in this respect, as well as 

 alterations of their great line of travel. To the Indian, dependent 



