Feb., 191 2. Mammals of Illinois and Wisconsin — Cory. 89 



seen piled up ready for shipment. At Billings alone I saw a huge 

 pile estimated at many car-loads, and it is claimed that in that year 

 as many as 200 tons of bones were shipped by a single firm in Miles 

 City to be ground for manufacture of fertilizers. 



In the early seventies Bviffalo were still numerous, although in 

 greatly diminishing numbers, but by 1885 very few were left. In 1888 

 I saw in Denver, Colorado, eight fresh skins which it was said were 

 killed in a region called Lost Park, in Park County, and the owner 

 claimed that there were several more Buffalo there at that time, which 

 had not been killed. This proved to be the case and it is claimed that 

 in 1890 the herd numbered some twenty individuals. They were 

 gradually killed off until in the winter of 1896-97 there were but four 

 left, two bulls, a cow and a calf. Mr. T. J. Holland, State Game and 

 Fish Commissioner for Colorado, informs me that these were all killed 

 in Lost Park in February, 1897. The skins and bones were preserved, 

 and in 1910 the specimens were mounted by Mr. J. C. Miles of Denver, 

 and at the present time (February, 19 11) are on exhibition in a clothing 

 store in that city. According to Mr. E. T. Seton* the last record he 

 has been able to find is that of four Buffalo having been killed in Texas 

 in 1889. Therefore it is fair to assume that the year 1897 saw the last 

 of the Wild Buffalo in the United States. 



So far as known the first Buffalo was seen in a wild state by a 

 European in the year 1530, when Cabeca de Vaca met with it in "Flor- 

 ida,"! although a captive specimen in the possession of Montezuma 

 in Mexico was seen by Cortez in 1521. J According to Davis, C. de 

 Vaca was wrecked at some point on the coast of Louisiana and journeyed 

 westward. § In his journal he describes seeing Buffalo, and we are led 

 to infer that the locality was somewhere in the southeastern part of 

 Texas. He says, "Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them 

 three times and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size 

 of those of Spain. They have small horns like those of Morocco, and 

 the hair long and flocky like of the merino. Some are light brown 

 ipardiUas), and others black. To my judgment the flesh is finer and 

 sweeter than that of this country. The Indians make blankets of 

 those that are not full-grown, and of the larger they make shoes and 

 bucklers. They come as far as the sea-coast of Florida, and in a direc- 



* Seton, E. T. Life Histories of Northern Animals, I, 1909, p. 296. 



t French, B. F. Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part II, 1846-53, p. i. 

 (Florida at that time included all the country south of Virginia and westward to the 

 Spanish possessions in Mexico.) 



% Solis, Antonio de. Historia de la Conquista de Mexico, 1684. (Edition of 1724 

 quoted above.) 



