168 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
at Great Slave Lake. At present, however, they are confined within much 
narrower limits than formerly, and are quite absent over large areas that 
once were among their favorite resorts.* 
The following abstracts and quotations embrace the more important refer- 
ences to the range and extermination of the buffalo in British North Amer- 
ica, and are arranged nearly in a chronological order. In 1790 Mackenzie 
found buffaloes in considerable numbers on Peace River, along which they 
extended westward to the base of the Rocky Mountains.— At this time they 
abounded also on the plains between the Assinniboine, Red, and Missouri 
Rivers, as well as on both branches of the Saskatchewan and their tribu- 
taries. t 
Ross Coxe, in June, 1812, also found the buffalo in small numbers on the 
head-waters of the Assinniboine River and its tributaries, § but from all this 
* According to the observations of Mr. W. H. Dall, and others, a near ally of the buffalo (the Bison 
antiquus Leidy = B. ecrassicornis Richardson) formerly existed considerably to the northwestward of 
the former range of the living species, extending throughout probably nearly the whole of Alaska. 
The evidences of this consist in the occurrence of their fossil remains at different localities in the 
valley of the Yukon and elsewhere. In answer to inquiries of mine, Mr. Dall wrote me, under 
date of San Francisco, Cal., January 23, 1871, as follows, respecting the distribution of these re- 
mains: “Your letter is at hand, and in reply I can only say that the bones of the bison are 
found on the Upper Yukon, from the ramparts eastward and northward, and also at Kotzebue Sound. 
They are found, like all the remains of tertiary mammals in that region, on or very near the surface, and 
are especially abundant on the Kotlo River, which falls into the Yukon above Fort Yukon [latitude 66°, 
longitude 141°, —just west of the United States and British boundary]. The remains I have seen, with 
those of the elephant (in similar situations), are black and fossilized. The bones of the musk-ox and 
mountain goat, on the contrary, are white, and look very recent. The latter animal is still rarely found 
living on the mountains near the Upper Yukon. The bison remains which I have seen have been princi- 
pally horn-cores and the remains of the cranium and lower jaws. ‘The indications are that the Elephas 
primigenius and the fossil bison were contemporaries, but that the musk-ox was a later comer. However, 
this idea rests merely on the appearance of the bones, as the bones of all (as well as the remains of fossil 
horses) are found together in a bed of blue clay, near the surface, at Kotzebue Sound, and (barring the 
horses) all over the Upper Yukon Valley, in similar positions, irregularly scattered on the ground. I 
found the cranium of an elephant in the grass at the mouth of the Yukon, skulls of musk oxen and bisons 
on the surface in little valleys in the Ramparts, and on the alluvial plain near Fort Yukon.” 
In addition to the above, I have since been informed by Mr. Dall that he obtained a complete skull, 
except the lower jaw, on the Sitzikunten River, just below the Ramparts of the Yukon, in about latitude 
65° and longitude 151°, and other fragments about fifty miles lower down the Yukon. The skull was 
unfortunately lost during the subsequent journey down the river. [The above should have been inserted 
in connection with the history of Bison antiquus, but was accidentally omitted. ] 
+ Mackenzie (Sir Alexander), Travels to the Polar Sea and to the Pacific Ocean in the years 1789 - 
91, Vol. I, pp. 147, 155, 156, 377. 
t Ibid., pp. Ixi, xii, Ixv, lxix. 
§ Adventures on the Columbia River, p. 259. 
iy, ramen 
