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166 



THE america:n" bisoa^s, 



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tered survivors of the former large herds, and which of course will not long 

 remain. He also says that a few were met with in the valley of the Gros 

 Ventres as late as I860, and in the valley of the upper part of the Snake 

 River Valley in 1870, — the two latter localities of course being on the west- 

 ern slope of the Rocky Mountains. 



It thus appears that the present range of the buffalo between the Platte 

 and the Missouri is confined to the comparatively small area drained by the 

 principal southern tributaries of the Yellowstone, namely, the Powder, the 

 Toncnic, and the Big Horn Rivers, from which they range northward over 

 the middle portions of the Yellowstone and the Musselshell Rivers to the 

 Missouri. . 



Former Boundariks of the Range of the Buffalo avithik the British 

 Possessions, and its present Distribution within that Area, 



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The range of the buffalo, as previously remarked, formerly extended con- 

 tinuously from the plains of the United States northward to Great Slave 



Lake, in latitude 62" to 64° north, bein 



arently almost as numerous over 



the plains of the Red River, the Assinniboine, Qu'appellc, both branches of 

 the Saskatchewan, and the Peace River, as over the plains of the Missouri. 

 Franklin, in 1820, met with a few at Slave Point, on the north side of Great 

 Slave Lake,* and Dr. Richardson states that in 1829 they had recently, 

 according to the testimony of the natives, wandered to the vicinity of Great 

 Marten Lake, in latitude 63° or 64°.t In respect to the distribution of the 

 buffalo in the "Fur Countries," Dr. Richardson speaks as follows : " As far as 

 I have been able to ascertain, the limestone and sandstone formations, lying 

 between the great Rocky Mountain ridge and the lower eastern chain of 



r 



primitive rocks, are the only districts in the fur countries that are frequented 

 by the bison. In these comparatively level tracts there is much prairie-land, 

 on which they find good grass in the summer; and also many marshes over- 

 grown with bulrushes and carices, which supply them with winter food. 

 Salt springs and lakes also abound on the confines of the limestone, and 



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* a 



a few frequent Slave Point, on the north side of the lake, but this is the most northern situation in 

 which they were observed by Captain Franklin's party." — Sabine, Zoological Appendix to FranklhCii 



Journey^ p. GGS. 



t Fauna Borcali-Aniericana, Vol I, p. 279, See also Zoological Appendix to Parry's Second Voyage, 



p. 332. 



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