; 
ii 
/ 
I 
ie 
(a 
174 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
herds, followed by the Sioux Indians. This migration seems to have ceased 
before about the 20th of July, when they were confined to the limits 
stated on the map,* and remained so till we left the country, in September. 
The Sweet Grass Hills form their centre in the vicinity of the Line. The 
pasture is good, and the region is besides a sort of neutral ground among the 
Indian tribes. We saw abundant traces of the passage of great herds in 
spring on the upper branches of Milk River, and they come in to the foot of 
the Rocky Mountains. I do not think they ever cross the mountains in the 
vicinity of the forty-ninth parallel, though I have seen their bones as far up 
the South Kootanie Pass as the last grassy meadow.” 
On the map referred to in the above-given letter, and reproduced in the 
adjoming wood-cut, it will be seen that a line drawn along Frenchman’s Creek 
or White Mud River is given as the eastern limit of the present range of the 
buffalo, while the region a little to the west of this line is marked as the 
district where “great herds” were seen “going north in June.” The line 
drawn parallel to the Little Souris River, and about forty miles to the west- 
ward of it, following the Coteau de Missouri, is given as the “ approximate 
eastern limit of « buffalo chips.’ ” 
In addition to the information contained in Professor Dawson’s letter, I 
find the following in his recent “Report on the Geology and Resources of the 
Region in the Vicinity of the Forty-ninth Parallel,” etc.: “From what I 
could learn,” says Professor Dawson, “I believe that, at the present rate of 
extermination, twelve to fourteen years will see the destruction of what now 
remains of the great northern band of buffalo, and the termination of the 
trade in robes and pemican, in so far as regards the country north of the 
Missouri River.” ¢ 
| Present Range of the Northern Herd. —¥From the foregoing it appears that 
what may be termed the great Northern Herd of buffaloes ranges from the | 
principal southern tributaries of the Yellowstone northward over a large 
part of Montana, far into British North America, extending northward, 
doubtless, to the wooded region of the Athabasca and Peace Rivers. To 
the westward, north of the United States, buffaloes still range to the base of 
the Rocky Mountains, though doubtless somewhat irregularly, and usually 
* A belt about seventy-five miles wide, situated on both sides of the 111th meridian, but lying mainly 
between the 111th and 112th meridians, and stretching northward towards the South Saskatchewan. 
+ Report on the Geology and Resources of the Region in the Vicinity of the Forty-ninth Parallel, etc., 
1875, p. 296. 
