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THE AMEEICAN BISONS, 



107 



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Ohio, along the southern store of Lake Erie, particularly towards its western 

 end. La Hontan, in his- description of Lake Erie, as he saw it about 1687, 

 says: "I cannot express what quantities of Deer and Turkeys are to be found 

 in these Woods^ and in the vast Meads that lye upon the South side of the 

 Lake. At the bottom of the Lake, we find beeves upon the Banks of two 

 pleasant Rivers that disembogue into it, without Cataracts or rapid Cur- 

 rents." ^ Vaudreuil, describing Lake Erie in 1718, says : -" There is no need of 

 flisting on either side of this lake, deer are to be found there in such abun- 

 dance ; buffaloes are found on the south, but not on the north shore." Again 

 he says: "Thirty leagues up the [Maumee] river is a place called La Glaise 

 [now Defiance, Ohio], where buffaloes are always, to be found; they eat the 

 clay and wallow in it." f The occurrence of a stream in Western New York 

 called Buflalo Creek, which empties into the eastern end of Lake Erie, is 



commonly viewed as traditional evidence of its occurrence at this point, 



F ' 



but positive testimony to this effect has thus far escaped me. This locality, 

 if it actually came so far eastward, must have formed the eastern limit of 



its range along the lakes. 



# 



I have found only highly questionable allusions to the occurrence of 



of Lake Ontario. Keating, | on the 



buffaloes along the southern shore 



authority of Colhoun, however, has cited a passage from Morton's "New 



English Canaan" as proof of their 



former existence in the neighborhood 



of this lake. Morton's statement is based on Indian reports, and the con- 

 text gives sufficient evidence of the general vagueness of his knowledge of 

 the region of which he w\as speaking. The passage, printed in 1637, is as 

 follows: ^"^ They [the Indians] have also made descriptions of great hoards 

 of well growne beasts that live about the parts of this lake [Erocoise], such 

 as the Christian world (untill this discovery) 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 usefull, being a kinde of 

 wolle, as fine ahnost as the wolle of the Beaver and the Salvages doe make 

 garments thereof. It is tenne yeares since first the relation of these things 



came to the eares of the English." 



The "beast" to which allusion is here 



made is unquestionably the buffalo, but the locality of Lake " Erocoise " is 



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* La Hontan, New Voyages to North America, English ed., Vol. I, p. 217. 

 t New York Coll. MSS., Paris Documents, VII, pp. 885, 891. 

 { Long's Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, etc., Vol. II, p. 25, 

 § Morton (Thomas), New English Canaan, p. 98, Amsterdam, 1637. 



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