THE AMERICAN BISONS. 169 
region they have now nearly or quite disappeared. Hind reports finding 
bones and horns of buffaloes on the Assinniboine River, between Fort Garry 
and Prairie Portage, in 1857, but makes no mention of the occurrence of the 
animals themselves there at that date, but says they were still found on the 
sage plains further north. The Red River hunters at this time, he says, 
went part to the plains of the Saskatchewan, and part to the Yellowstone 
and Coteau de Missouri for their buffaloes.* Alexander Ross, writing at 
about the same date, also says, “Formerly all this part of the country [Red 
River Plains] was overrun by wild buffalo, even as late as 1810”; but adds, 
“Of late years the field of chase has been far distant from the Pembina 
Plains.” f 
Simpson reports that buffaloes were abundant on the plains south of the 
Saskatchewan in the winter of 1836, and that the country about Carlton 
House was completely intersected with their deeply-worn trails, and strewed 
with their skeletons; from this region they had been temporarily driven by 
the autumnal fires. He also met with a few buffaloes on the Clear Water 
River, a little above its junction with the Athabasca. In January, 1840, 
they were also extremely abundant about Carlton House. t 
Respecting the range and the migrations of the buffalo within the British 
Possessions about the year 1858, Hind observes as follows: “Red River 
hunters recognize two grand divisions of buffalo, those of the Grand Coteau 
and Red River, and those of the Saskatchewan... . . The north-western 
buffalo ranges are as follow. The bands belonging to the Red River Range 
winter on the Little Souris, and south-easterly towards and beyond Devil’s 
Lake, and thence on to Red River and the Shayenne. Here, too, they are 
found in the spring. ‘Their course then lies west towards the Grand Coteau 
de Missouri until the month of June, when they turn north, and revisit the 
Little Souris from the west, winding round the flank of Turtle Mountain to 
Devil’s Lake, and by the Main River (Red River), to the Shayenne again. 
In the memory of many Red River hunters, the buffalo were accustomed to 
visit the prairies of the Assinniboine as far north as Lake Manitobah, where 
in fact their skulls and bones are now to be seen; their skulls are also seen 
on the east side of the Red River of the North, in Minnesota, but the living 
* Hind (H. Y.), Canadian, Red River, Assiniboine, and Saskatchewan Exploring Expeditions, Vol. 1, 
p- 272. 
+ The Red River Settlement: Its Rise, Progress, and Present State, p. 15. 
¢ Simpson (Thomas), Narrative of the Discovery of the North Coast of America, London, 1843, pp. 40, 
45, 46, 60, 402, 404. 
