108 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
not so easily settled. Colhoun regards it, and probably correctly, as iden- 
tical with Lake Ontario, while other writers (among them Marcy) have ap- 
plied this reference to Lake Champlain.* The context states that this lake is 
three hundred miles west of Massachusetts Bay, and that it may be reached 
by the Hudson River, while it is also given as the source of the Potomac.t 
The extreme northeastern limit of the former range of the buffalo seems 
to have been, as above stated, in Western New York, near the eastern end 
of Lake Erie. That it probably ranged thus far there is fair evidence. As 
also already noticed, buffaloes may at times have passed over to the eastern 
slope of the Alleghanies, since near Lewisburg, Union County, is a stream 
still bearing the name of Buffalo Creek; but the accounts of the explora- 
tion and early settlement of this region make no mention of its occurrence 
there at the time it was first visited by Europeans. The earliest evidence 
of their former existence in this region is afforded by a map published by 
Forster, in 1771, accompanying the English translation of Peter Kalm’s 
travels. On this map a marsh called “Buffalo Swamp” is indicated as situ: 
ated between the Alleghany River and the’ West Branch of the Susque- 
hanna, near the heads of the Licking and Toby’s Creeks (apparently the 
streams now called Oil Creek and Clarion Creek). The most explicit tes- 
timony, however, is that furnished by Mr. Ashe,t who has given an account 
* Marcy (R. B.) says, “ Formerly buffaloes were found in countless herds over almost the entire north- 
ern continent of America, from the 28th to the 50th degree of north latitude, and from the shores of Lake 
Champlain to the Rocky Mountains,” and cites this passage from Morton in proof of its existence around 
Lake Champlain. — Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, pp. 1038, 104, 1853. 
+ “And from this Lake Southwards, trends that goodly River called of the Natives Patomack, which 
lischardgeth herselfe in the parts of Virginea, from whence it is navigable by shipping of great Burthen up 
to the Falls (which lieth in 41. Degrees, and a halfe of North latitude:) and from the Lake downe to the 
Falls by a faire current.” He adds: “It is well knowne, they [the Dutch] aime at that place, and have a 
possibility to attaine unto the end of thier desires therein, by meanes, if the River of Mohegan, which of 
the English is named Hudsons River (where the Dutch have settled: to well fortified plantations already. 
.... The Salvages make report of 3 great Rivers that issue out of this Lake, 2 of which are to us knowne, 
the one to be Patomack, the other Canada, and why may not the third be found there likewise, which they 
describe to trend westward, whichis conceaved to discharge herselfe into the South Sea [probably a refer- 
ence to the Mississippi].” — New English Canaan, p. 99; Force’s Hist. Tracts, Vol. H, No. 5, p. 67. 
+ Mr. Ashe speaks of the fondness “all the animals of those parts” have for salt, and of their resorting 
in large numbers to “ Onondargo” Lake to drink of its brackish waters, and adds that the best roads to 
ths lake were the “ buffalo tracks; so called from having been observed to be made by the buffaloes in 
their annual visitations to the lake from their pasture-grounds; and though this is a distance of above 
two hundred miles, the best surveyor could not have chosen a more direct course, or firmer or better 
ground.” The region about Onondaga Lake was thoroughly explored as early as 1670, and settlements 
were made and a fort erected before 1705. Prior to 1738, lines of communication had been established 
