126 The Bison 



gered much later on tributaries of the Platte 

 River further to the northward. There were 

 buffalo on the Sweetwater and its tributaries 

 between 1870 and 1880, and on certain other 

 tributaries of the North Platte River between 

 1880 and 1890. About this same time there 

 was a small band ranging in what is called the 

 Red Desert Country, south of what is now the 

 National Park. But the last of these disap- 

 peared about 1890. 



The color of the buffalo is well understood to 

 be a dark liver brown over most of the body, 

 changing to black on the long hair of the fore 

 legs, muzzle, and beard. The long hair on the 

 hump is yellowish, faded from sunburn, and often 

 much the color of the hair of a " tow-headed 

 child." The mountain bison, which lives largely 

 in the timber, and is scarcely or not at all ex- 

 posed to the sun, is much darker, sometimes 

 almost black, throughout. 



Very rarely buffalo of unusual color were seen. 

 These were sometimes roan, sometimes gray or 

 spotted with white, or even pure white through- 

 out. A hide taken on the upper Missouri about 

 1879 was white on the head, legs, and belly, and 

 elsewhere of normal color; the result was that 



