INTRODUCTION. vii 
Part II, — it was found necessary to examine in detail the alleged evidences 
of its former existence along the whole Atlantic seaboard from New Eng- 
land to Florida, over which many writers have assumed that it formerly 
ranged, — as well as southward to the Gulf coast, —but which a critical 
examination of the evidence fails to substantiate. Its actual eastern limit | 
at the time of the first exploration of the Atlantic slope by Europeans being 
settled with as much certainty as available evidence will allow, the region 
of the Ohio Valley is next considered, where its former limits and relative 
abundance are traced with considerable fulness, together with its gradual total 
extirpation therefrom. Subsequently its former range and final extirpation 
over the trans-Rocky Mountain region is similarly treated. An effort is 
then made to define its former range south of the Rio Grande. A brief 
sketch is then given of its extirpation over the greater part of the vast 
region included between the Rio Grande on the south, the Platte River on 
the north, the Mississippi River on the east, and the Rocky Mountains on 
the west, with a definition of its present limited range within this area. 
The region lying between the Platte River on the south, the United States 
and British boundary on the north, the Mississippi River on the east, and 
the Rocky Mountains on*the west, is next similarly treated. Finally its 
former vast range to the northward of the United States is defined, with a 
history of its extirpation over much of this area, and the limits of its present 
circumscribed range in the region north of the Platte River. 
The accompanying map is designed to show not only the extreme limits 
of the known range of the buffalo (which was presumably about its range at 
the middle of the eighteenth century), but also its range at several different 
subsequent periods, as well as its habitat at the present time. The outer 
border of the blue area shows the extreme known range of the buffalo, while 
the space colored blue represents the area over which this animal had disap- 
peared prior to the year 1800. The outer border of the pink area shows 
approximately its extreme limits of distribution at this date, and the area 
colored pink the portion of country over which it disappeared during the 
succeeding twenty-five years. The portion colored green represents in like 
manner its restriction during the next succeeding twenty-five years, or 
between the years 1825 and 1850. The yellow area similarly shows its 
restriction between the years 1850 and 1875, and the orange spaces the 
limited areas over which it still exists. Other tints indicate the localities 
at which the remains of the extinct species have been found. The boun- 
