256 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



saw no Buffalo there, but records that there were great herds 

 of these animals still on the summer range of the Coteau du 

 Missouri, 50 miles to the south-west.'° The fear of the Sioux, 

 he says, kept most hunters out of that country. 



At Two Creeks, Hind saw and shot the first Buffalo — a 

 bull — on July 9, 1858. Next morning, as he journeyed toward 

 Fort Ellice, he saw 3 more. Thirty miles west of the fort, he 

 says, "Buffalo were numerous." ^^ 



The last Buffalo band seen in Manitoba by John Schott 

 was in 1861, when an immense herd was discovered in Grand 

 Valley. They completely covered the site of the present town 

 of Brandon. 



In 1867 a trader, J. L. Lagare, went on a journey from 

 Winnipeg toward Wood Mountain. He told me in conversa- 

 tion that he saw the first Buffalo at Oak Lake; and during 

 the winter of 1867-8 he and his partner lived on Buffalo killed 

 on the Souris Plains, although they were then scarce, and only 

 small bunches were to be seen. The great herd kept farther 

 west, about Cypress Hills. 



In 1874 Dr. E. Coues passed along the International 

 Boundary without seeing any Buffalo till he got to Frenchmen's 

 River, Montana, about Long. 107° 20', or 200 miles west of 

 Manitoba.'^ 



In 1875 a few stragglers were said to be on the Big Plain. 



In 1879, ^bout November 7, Dr. F. W. Shaw, of Carberry, 

 tells me that, as he was going to Rapid City from the Big Plain, 

 he saw the tracks of 3 Buffalo at a place about 4 miles north of 

 Grand Valley. They had been travelling northward, and a few 

 hours before had been seen by a Mr. McFadden, while they 

 were crossing the Assiniboine. 



In 1882, C. C. Helliwell, of Brandon, saw 8 in the 

 Souris region. 



In the fall of 1883, according to A. S. Barton, of Boisse- 

 vain, an old Buffalo bull crossed the Souris Plain from the south- 



"^Ibid., p. 46. ''Ibid., p. 46. 



'^ Birds, 49th Parallel, Bull. U. S. Geol. Sur. Ter., 1878. Bull. 3, Vol. IV, art. XXV, 

 P- 547- 



