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THE AMEEICAI!^ BISONS. 



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In June J 1844, Fremont found them in immense numbers in North, Middle, 

 and South Parks, in the present State of Colorado, as well as on the tributa- 

 ries of the Green Elver on the western slope of the mountains, and on the 



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Sweet Water, and the other extreme head-waters of the North Platte, from 



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all of which extensive region they were nearly or quite exterminated during 



the following twenty years. 



When the miners first visited the parks and mountains of Colorado, m the 

 summer of 1859, they found them occupied by small bands of buffaloes, which 

 afforded them an abundance of meat for several years. They have been 

 scarce there, however, for the last ten years, during which time only strag- 

 glers have been met with. In the summer of 1871 I found their skulls still 

 frequent in South Park and up the valley of the South Platte to its extreme 

 source. They w^ere very frequent at and above Montgomery, and even on 

 the neighboring mountains above timber-line, showing that not many years 

 ago the buffalo ranged over the grassy slopes of the mountains even to above 

 the limit of the timber. . I heard of a single small band of two or three dozen 



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individuals near the southern borders of South Park, in the vicinity of Buf- 

 falo Springs, and saw a calf at one of the ranches that was captured in June 

 of that year as the band passed up the valley of the South Platte into the 

 Park.'^ Mr. Wm. N. Byers, of Denver, Colorado, whites me that a band of 

 twelve w^ere seen in South Park in 1873, and that ^^occasionally a little band 

 is still seen in the northern edge of Middle Park and in North Park." 

 ^^ About seventy-five wintered on the head of Muddy or Milk River, Middle 

 Park, last winter [1874-75]. Another band w^as seen on the head-waters 



thence over the divide into North Park. Most 



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of our people call these mountain animals Bisons, and think them smaller 

 than the Plains Buffalo, but they are evidently the same animal, resorting 

 to the mountains of their owm choice." 



ne of these small parties, according to Western new^spapers, seems to 

 have recently fallen a prey to the Indians, a Denver paper of a recent date 

 containing the following: "A party of Indians in the northwestern edge 

 of the Middle Park came upon a herd of buffiilo the other day, and killed 

 them all, -— forty-tw^o in number. All they saved was the skins, leaving the 

 meat to rot. Such w^aste of the game ought to be stopped, and the soone 



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the better." 



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Dr. Hayden informs me that a band of eighteen w\as seen by one of his 



* Bull Essex Inst., Yol. VI, pp. 54, 55. 



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