158 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
whole belt of country, Iam indebted to Dr. Elliott Coues for the subjoined 
important communication. Two seasons spent in this region as naturalist 
of the United States Northern Boundary Survey have given him opportuni- 
ties for collecting much important information respecting this region. The 
communication, dated “ Washington, March 2, 1875,” is as follows :— 
“The time when the buffalo ranged in this latitude [parallel of 49°], east- 
ward of the Red River of the North, passed so long since that the traces of 
their former presence have become effaced. The present generation of hunt- 
ers in Manitoba and adjacent portions of the United States trail to the west- 
ward, by several well-known routes, in pursuit of robes and meat. In travel- 
ling from the river I saw no sign whatever until in the vicinity of Turtle 
Mountain, where an occasional weather-worn skull or limb-bone may. be 
observed. Thence westward to the Mouse River, the bony remains multiply 
with each day’s journey, until they become common objects; still, no horn, 
hoof, or patch of hide. In the space intervening between this river and the 
point where the Coteau de Missouri crosses the parallel of 49°, quite recent 
remains, as skulls still showing horns, nose-gristle, or hair, and portions of 
skeletons still ligamentously attached, are very frequent. At La Riviére de 
Lac, a day’s march west of the Mouse River, there was a grand battue a few 
years since, as evidenced by the numbers of bones, the innumerable deserted 
badger-holes, and the circles of stones denoting where Indian lodges stood. 
Within the Coteau the most recent remains are the rule; and a hundred 
miles from such edge (nearly north of the mouth of the Yellowstone) living 
animals were seen in the summer of 1873. 
“Thus comparing the two great basins of the Red River and of the Mis- 
souri, respectively, it will be seen that the animal left the whole United 
States portion of the former before it was driven from parts of the Missouri 
basin equally far east, or even further eastward. This is borne out by obser- 
vations made on my journey from the Mouse River due south to Fort Ste- 
venson, on the Missouri. There were few skulls (about as many as between 
Mouse River and Turtle Mountain) until I struck the Coteau, within which 
they at once multiplied. 
“In the western portion of the Red River basin numberless buffalo-drais 
still score the ground, with a general north-south trend. 
“In the summer of 1874 I approached the parallel of 49° in a southwest- 
erly course from the mouth of the Yellowstone. The whole country offered 
a fair amount of skeletal remains, in many cases ligamentously cohering, and 
i 
| 
f 
, 
q 
