THE AMERICAIi BISO^Tg, 



169 



/ 





rK 



writing at 



region they have now nearly or quite disappeared. Hind reports finding 

 bones and horns of buffaloes on the Assinniboine River, between Fort Garry 

 and Prairie Portage, in 1857? but makes no mention of the occurrence of the 

 animals themselves there at that date, but says they were still found on the 

 sage plains further north. The Red River hunters at this time, he says, 

 went part to the plains of the Saskatchewan, and part to the Yellowstone 

 and Coteau de Missouri for their buffaloes.* Alexander Ross, 

 about the same date, also says, " Formerly all this part of the country [Red 

 River Plains] was overrun by wild bnfflilo, even as late as 1810"; but adds, 

 '^ Of late years the field of chase has been far distant from the Pembina 



Plains/' t 



Simpson reports that buflliloes were abundant on the plains south of the 



Saskatchewan in the winter of 1836, and that the country about Carlton 



House was completely intersected with their deeply-worn trails, and strewed 



with their skeletons; from this region they had been temporarily driven by 



r 



the autumnal fires. 



Water 



River, a little above its junction with the Athabasca. In January, 1840, 

 they were also extremely abundant about Carlton House, t 



Respecting the range and the migrations of the buffalo within the British 

 Possessions about the year 1858, Hind observes as follows: ^'Red River 

 hunters recognize two grand divisions of buffalo, those of the Grand Coteau 



and Red River, and those of the Saskatchewan The north-western 



buffiilo ranges are as follow. The bands belonging to the Red River Range 



winter on the Little Souris, and south-easterly towards and beyond Devil's 

 Lake, and thence on to Red River and the Shayenne. Here, too, they are 

 found in the spring! Tlieir course then lies west towards the Grand Coteau 

 de Missouri until the month of June, when they turn north, and revisit the 

 Little Souris from the west, winding round the flank of Turtle Moimtain to 

 Devil's Lake, and by the Main River (Red River), to the Shayenne again. 

 In the memory of many Red River hxmters, the buffalo were accustomed to 

 visit the prairies of the Assinniboine as far north as Lake Manitobah, where 

 in fact their skulls and bones are now to be seen; their skulls are also seen 

 on the east side of the Red River of the North, in Minnesota, but the living 



* Hind (H. Y.), Canadian, Ked River, Assinniboine, and Saskatchewan Exploring Expeditions, Vol. II, 



p. 272. 



t The Red River Settlement: Its Rise, Rrogress, and Present State, p. 15. 



X Simpson (Thomas), Narrative of the Discovery of the North Coast of America, London, 1843, pp. 40, 



45, 46, 60, 402, 404. 



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