SOURCE OF ST. PETER's RIVER. 25 



that day we saw but one buffalo, it was at a late hour in 

 the afternoon. This animal was killed by one of the part)'-, 

 and was the last that we saw. Mr. Colhoun has endeavour- 

 ed to trace the extent of country over which the buffalo is 

 known to rove at present, or to have formerly inhabited. 

 Every thing that connects itself with the history of this 

 strange and interesting animal, which by an old author is 

 described as resembling " in some respect a Lion, in other 

 the Camels, Horses, Oxen, Sheep, or Goats,"* must be 

 important to collect, for its numbers have diminished 

 so rapidly within a century, its rovings have been so much 

 restricted, that there is reason to apprehend that it will 

 soon disappear from the face of the land. 



The buffalo was formerly found throughout the whole 

 territory of the United States, with the exception of that 

 part which lies east of Hudson's river and Lake Champlain, 

 and of narrow strips of coast on the Atlantic and the Gulf 

 of Mexico. These were swampy, and had probably low 

 thick woods. That It did not exist on the Atlantic coast 

 is rendered probable from the circumstance that all the 

 early writers whom Mr. Colhoun has consulted on the sub- 

 ject, and they are numerous, do not mention them as ex- 

 isting there, but further back. Thomas Morton, one of the 

 first settlers of New England, says, that the Indians " have 

 also made description of great beards of well growne 

 beasts, that live about the parts of this lake," Erocoise, now 

 Lake Ontario, " such as the Christian world, (until this dis- 

 covery,) hath not bin made acquainted with. These Beasts 

 are of the bignesse of a Cowe, their flesh being very good 

 foode, their hides good lether, their fleeces very useful be- 

 ing a kind of wolle, as fine almost as the wolle of the Bea- 



* Purchas his Pilgrimage, London, 1614, p. 778. 



