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142 



THE AMERICAIT BISOIs^S. 



Western 



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that tliey had existed at that point at a not very remote period. 



% 



Gregg, writing about 1844, says : 



"Even within thirty years they were 

 abundant over much of the present States of Missouri and Arkansas/' or as 

 late as 1815.t In 1820 settlements had extended up the Arkansas nearly 

 to the western border of the State, and probably soon after this date the 



buffaloes were wholly extirpated throughout the present State of Ar- 



kansas. 



Beck states that in Missouri, as late as 1823, "immense herds" of buffaloes 

 'frequently seen covering the extensive plains which stretch along 



were 



In earlier times Charlevoix found "magnificent meadows" in 



the west part of the State. During the dry seasons/' he says, " they remain 

 in the neighborhood of rivers, but they uniformly migrate to the south at the 



approach of winter." t 



It thus appears that the buffalo also^ lingered in Western Missouri till about 

 1820 to 1825. They probably disappeared from Southern Iowa at about the 

 same period, but they existed for a much longer time in the northern half 



of the State. 



Southeastern Iowa, on the Des Moines River, " quite covered with buffalo, 



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and other wild creatures." § Major Long, in a trip eastward from Council 

 Bluffs in 1819 found " tlieir skulls and other remains on the plains of the 

 Nishnabatona, and in one instance discovered the tracks of a bull ; but," he 

 adds, " all the herds of these animals appear to have deserted the country 

 east of Council Bluffs." || According to Assistant Surgeon Charles C. Keeney, 

 the buffalo was sometimes met with on the open prairies a few miles west of 

 Fort Dodge, on the Des Moines River, as late as 1852.'^[ 



M. Belon, an old French voyageiir, wdiom I met in 1873 on the Yellow- 

 stone, acting as interpreter for the expedition of that year, and who moved 

 to Minnesota in 1837, informed me that buffaloes were abundant within fifty 

 miles of St. Paul as late as 1836, and were common on the head-waters of the 

 Cedar and Des Moines Rivers, on both sides of the Iowa and Minnesota boun- 

 dary, as late as 1845. They have, however, been for many years extinct 



throughout the present State of Iowa, with the exception of the occurrence 



* Long's Expedition from Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains, Vol. II, p. 

 t Gren-o-, Commerce of the Prairies, Vol. 2, p. 113. 

 X Beck (L. J.), Gazetteer of the States of Illinois and Missouri, p. 167. 

 § Letters, Goadby's English ed., p. 295. 



Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Vol. I, p. 421. 

 If Med. Statistics U. S. Army, 1839-1854, p. 55. 



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