100 ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



the old. In the attempt to cross, the bison is often insulated 

 on a cake of ice that floats down the river. The savages 

 select the most favorable points for attack, and as the 

 bison approaches, the Indians leap with wonderful agility 

 over the frozen ice to attack him. As the animal is neces- 

 sarily unsteady, and his footing very insecure on the ice, he 

 soon receives his death-wound, and is drawn triumphantly 

 to the shore. 



The numbers of this species are surprisingly great, when 

 we consider the immense destruction of them since European 

 weapons have been used against them : they are however 

 fast disappearing before civilization, equally with the Indian 

 himself; and the time is probably not far distant, when both 

 will only be known in the annals of history. They were 

 once extensively diffused over what is now United States 

 territory, but at the present time their range is very dif- 

 ferent, being confined to the remote unsettled districts of 

 the north and west, being rarely seen east of the Mississippi, 

 or south of the St. Lawrence. West of Lake Winnipeg they 

 are found as far north as 62 ; west of the Rocky Mountains 

 seldom farther north than the Columbia River. The greats 

 plains of the Saskatchewan, and the Red River still abound 

 with them, though the herds are less numerous every year. 



The first description given of the Bison is by Thoma 8 

 Morton, A. D. 1637, in a work entitled '"New Canaan." 

 He says, that the Indians " have also made great description 

 of herds of well grown beasts that live about the parts of this 

 lake (Ontario,) such as the Christian world until this discovery 

 hath not been made acquainted with. These beasts are of 

 the bigness of a cow, their fleeces very useful, being a kind 

 of wool, and the savages do make garments thereof," &c. 



Mackenzie alludes to a white buffalo, during nis explora- 

 tions, said by the Indians to be numerous in Oregon ; this 

 probably was the Rocky Mountain sheep, known to them 

 under that name. 



