80 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
In the narrative of the travels of David Ingram from the Gulf of Mexico 
- to Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia, made in 1568 — 69, are unquestionable ref- 
erences to the buffalo, which have been referred to as possible evidence of 
its existence on the Atlantic slope, but the whole narrative is full of exagger- 
ations and fanciful descriptions of mythical things and scenes, while the 
localities are wholly vague. The account speaks, for instance, of “ great 
plentye of Buffes .... w® are Beastes as bigge as twoe Oxen in length 
almost twentye foote, havinge longe eares like a bludde hownde w™ long 
heares about there eares, ther hornes be Crooked like Rames hornes, ther 
eyes blacke, there heares longe blacke, rough and hagged as a Goate, the 
Hydes of these Beastes are solde verye deare. These Beastes doe keepe Com- 
pany only by couples a male and a female and doe always fighte w™ others 
of the same kynde.” * 
The account also says, “He did alsoe see in that Countrye boathe Ele- 
phantes and Uunces. He did also see one other straunge Beaste bigger 
then a Beare, yt had nether heade nor necke, his eyes and mouthe weare in 
his brest.”” It also describes “redd Sheepe” which lived in herds of five hun- 
dred individuals. Since Ingram’s route doubtless took him through a por- 
tion of the range of the buffalo, the above-quoted description of “Bufles” 
may refer to that animal, but there is nothing to show that the locality was 
on the Atlantic slope. 
Champlain, as early as 1604, ascended the St. Lawrence River nearly to 
Lake Ontario, and although he obtained from the Indians quite distinct 
accounts of Lakes Ontario and Erie, and of the Copper Mines of Lake Su- 
perior, he seems not to have learned anything respecting the buffalo. The 
animal which he describes as the “ Orignac” or “Orignal” is without doubt 
the moose. He mentions it as an animal “which is like an Ox,’ ¢ and Pur- 
chas, in his marginal notes, adds, “ Orignac, a beast like an oxe.” He first 
met with it at the mouth of the Saguenay, and later encountered it among the 
animals he found at the mouth of the Richelieu, speaking of it as the “ Orig- 
nac,” and Purchas again adds, “Orignas are before said to bee like oxen, 
perhaps Buffes. Lescarbot, [says] that Orignacs are Ellans,’ {— the French 
: * The Land Travels of David Ingram and others in the years 1568-69. From the Rio de Minas in 
the Gulph of Mexico to Cape Breton in Acadia. Edited from the original MS. (Sloane MSS., Mus. Brit; 
No. 1447, ff. 1-18) by P. C. J. Weston, in Doc. connected with the Hist. of S. Carolina. London, 1856, | 
p- 14. 
+ Purchas, Pilgrims, Vol. IV, p. 1607. 
t Ibid, p. 1613. 
