158 



THE AMEETCAE' BISOXS. 



whole belt of country, I am mdcbted to Dr. Elliott Cones for the subjoined 

 important communication. Two seasons spent in this region as naturalist 

 of the United States Northern Boundary Survey have given him opportuni- 



ties for collecting much important information respecting this region, 

 communication, dated ^-Washington, March 2, 1875/' is as follows: — 



The 



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^^The time when the buffalo ranged in this latitude [parallel of 49^], east- 

 ward of the Red River of the North, passed so long since that the traces of 

 their former presence have become effaced. The present generation of hunt- 

 ers in Manitoba and adjacent portions of the United States trail to the west- 

 ward, by several well-known routes, in pursuit of robes and meat. In travel- 

 hno* from the river I saw no sign whatever until in the vicinity of Turtle 

 Mountain, where an occasional weather-worn skull or limb-bone may be 

 observed. Thence westward to the Mouse River, the bony remains multiply 

 with each day's journey, until they become common objects ; still, no horn, 

 hoof, or patch of hide. In the space intervening between this river and the 



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point where the Coteau de Missouri crosses the parallel of 49"", quite recent 

 remams, as skulls still showing horns, nose-gristle, or hair, and portions of 

 skeletons still ligamentously attached, are very fi^equent. At La Riviere de 

 Lac, a day's march west of the Mouse River, there was a grand battue a few 

 years since, as evidenced by the numbers of bones, the innumerable deserted 

 badger-holes, and the circles of stones denoting where Indian lodges stood. 

 Within the Coteau the most recent remains are the rule; and a hundred 

 miles from such edge (nearly north of the mouth of the Yellowstone) living 

 animals were seen in the summer of 1873. 



"Thus comparing the two great basins of the Red River and of the Mis- 

 souri, respectively, it will be seen that the animal left the whole United 

 States portion of the former before it was driven from parts of the Missouri 

 basin equally far east, or even further eastward. This is borne out by obser- 

 vations made on my journey from the Mouse River due south to Fort Ste- 

 venson, on the Missouri. , There were few skulls (about as many as between 

 Mouse River and Turtle Mountain) until I struck the Coteau, within which 



they at once multiplied. 



"In the western portion of the Red River basin numberless buffalo-/m& 



still score the ground, with a general north-south trend. 



"In the summer of 1874 I approached the parallel of 49'' in a southwest- 

 erly course from the mouth of the Yellowstone. The whole country offered 

 a fliir amount of skeletal remains, in many cases ligamentously cohering, and 



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