— BSCS EERE) 
THE AMERICAN BISONS. 127 
himself now unable to substantiate the statement, but adds, “I distinctly 
remember being satisfied at the tame of what I said.” I have myself made 
extensive inquiries of naturalists and army officers who had either passed 
through Arizona or had been stationed there for a considerable length of 
time without being able to elicit any corroborative evidence of Dr. Coues’s 
statement.* 
Extreme Southwestern Linut. — Respecting the extreme southwestern limit 
of the former range of the buffalo, Keating, on the authority of Colhoun, 
wrote, in 1823, as follows: “De Laét says, on the authority of Herrera, that 
they grazed as far south as the banks of the Yaquimi In the same chapter 
this author states that Martin Perez had, in 1591, estimated the Province 
of Cinaloa, in which this river runs, to be three hundred leagues from the 
city of Mexico. This river is supposed to be the same which, on Mr. Tan- 
ner’s map of North America (Philadelphia, 1822), is named Hiaqui,} and 
situated between the 27th and 28th degrees of north latitude. Perhaps, 
however, it may be the Rio Gila, which empties itself in latitude 32°.” § 
On referring to the works cited by Keating, I find that Herrera gives 
the statement on the authority of Nufia de Guzman, who made a journey 
to Cinaloa in 1532. According to a map accompanying De Laét’s work, the 
Province of Cinaloa included the parallels of twenty-seven and twenty-eight 
degrees. Herrera’s statement is as follows: “En la ribera de Yaquimi ay 
algunas vacas, y muy grandes ciervos”;||—simply that many cattle and 
many deer of very large size were found on the banks of the Yaquimi. In 
the context, nor in any of the old writings descriptive of this region at 
the time it was first visited by the Spaniards, do I find any further state- 
ments that could by the freest license of translation be rendered bison or 
buffalo. As the only species of the deer family found in this region is the 
little Cervus mexicanus, one of the smallest deer found in North America, the 
phrase muy grandes ciervos can only refer to this species, and gives at once 
* Dr. W. J. Hoffman, under date of “ Reading, Penn., June 19, 1875,” writes me that he “ found no tra- 
dition amongst any of the tribes in Arizona, by which we might infer that their ancestors were acquainted 
with this animal. The tribes visited are located in the northern part of Arizona (Plateau del Colorado), 
in the Mogollon Mts., Sierra Blanca, and along the Rio Gila and as far eastward as the Rio Colorado- 
chiquito.” 
+ “Juxta Yaquimi fluminis ripas tauri vacceeque et pregrandes cervi pascuntur.” — Der Lait, Americe 
Utriusque Descriptio, Lugd. Batav. Anno 1633, Lib. 6. Cap. 6.” p. 286. 
t The Rio Yaqui, doubtless, of modern maps. 
§ Long’s Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter’s River, Vol. II, p 28. 
|| Herrera (Antonio de), Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Tomo III, p. 16. (Hd. of 1728.) 
