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168 



THE AMEEICAF BISOFS. 



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at Great Slave Lake. At present, however, they are confined within much 

 narrower limits than formerly, and are quite absent over large areas that 

 once were among their favorite resorts.* 



The following abstracts and quotations embrace the more important refer- 

 ences to the range and extermination of the buffalo in British North Amer- 

 ica, and are arranged nearly in a chronological order. In 1790 Mackenzie 

 found buffaloes in considerable numbers on Peace Elver, along which they 

 extended westward to the base of the Kocky Mountains.! At this time they 

 abounded also on the plains between the Assinniboine, Red, and Missouri 

 Rivers, as well as on both branches of the Saskatchewan and 



taries. t 



Ross Coxe, in June, 1812, also found the buffalo in small numbers on the 



head-waters of the Assinniboine River and its tributaries, § but from all this 



eir tribu- 



ii . 

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longitude 141 



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* Accordino- to the observations of Mr. W. H. Dall, and others, a near ally of the buffalo (the Biso7i 

 antiquus Leidy = ^. crasdcornis Richardson) formerly existed considerably to the northwestward of 

 the former range of the living species, extending throughout probably nearly the whole of Alaska. 

 The evidences of this consist in the occurrence of their fossil remains at different localities in the 

 valley of the Yukon and elsewhere. In answer to inquiries of mine, Mr. Dall wrote me, under 

 date of San Francisco, CaL, January 23, 1871, as follows, respecting the distribution of these re- 

 mains: "Your letter is at hand, and in reply I can only say that the bones of the bison are 

 found on the Upper Yukon, from the ramparts eastward and northward, and also at Kotzcbue Sound. 

 They are found, like all the remains of tertiary mammals in that region, on or very near the surface, and 

 are especially abundant on the Kotlo River, which falls into the Yukon above Fort Yukon [latitude 66°, 



^ — just west of the United States and British boundary]. The remains I have seen, with 

 those of tha elephant (in similar situations), are black and fossilized. The bones of the musk-ox and 

 mountain goat, on the contrary, arc white, and look \(iry recent. The latter animal is still rarely found 

 living on the mountains near the Upper Yukon. The bison remains which I have seen have been princi- 

 pally horn-cores and the remains of the cranium and lower jaws. The indications are that the Elephas 

 'prbnlgenius and the fossil bison were contemporaries, but that the musk-ox was a later comer. However, 

 this idea rests merely on the appearance of the bones, as the bones of ail (as well as the remains of fossil 

 horses) are found together in a bed of blue clay, near the surface, at Kotzebue Sound, and (barring the 

 horses) all over the Upper Yukon Valley, in similar positions, irregularly scattered on the ground, 

 found the cranium of an elephant in the grass at the mouth of the Yukon, skulls of musk oxen and bisons 

 on the surface in little valleys in the Ramparts, and on the alluvial plain near Fort Yukon." 



In addition to the above, I have since been informed by Mr. Dall that he obtained a complete skull, 

 except the lower jaw, on the Sitzikunten River, Just below the Ramparts of the Yukon, in about latitude 

 65° and lono-itude 151°, and other fragments about fifty miles lower down the Yukon. The skull was 

 unfortunately lost during the subsequent journey down the river. [The above should have been inserted 

 in connection with the history of Bison antiquum, but was accidentally omitted.] 



t Mackenzie (Sir Alexander), Travels to the Polar Sea and to the Pacific Ocean in the years 1789- 

 91, Vol, IT, pp. 147, 155, 156, 377. 



X Ibid., pp. Ixi, Ixii, Ixv, Ixix. 



§ Adventures on the Columbia River, p. 259. 



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