1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 59 



where others could be found on the lake bottom. With Elmer Wil- 

 liams the writer visited the lake next day and obtained 9 more 

 skulls, 1 contributed by J. O. Ausmus, a rancher living on the lake 

 shore near the mouth of Silvies River, who also showed where the 

 best skulls were to be found. 



During recent dry years the water of Malheur Lake has receded 

 to a small area of some few thousand acres, leaving many miles of 

 dry, cracked, mellow bottom that was formerly soft mud to con- 

 siderable depths. Over this dry bed white objects, quite different 

 from the thousands of snow geese, were seen here and there, some- 

 times half a dozen from one point. These all proved to be buffalo 

 skulls lying on the surface of the ground, and in every case where 

 the skull had not been recently moved the whole skeleton was found 

 buried under it. Evidently the animals had bogged down in search 

 of water at some dry period long ago when the water had receded ; 

 or else, in attempting to cross the lake on the ice in winter or to 

 get out to open water, they had broken through and drowned in 

 the oozy mud of the bottom. Generally the skeletons were scattered, 

 but in some natural depressions, that may have been regular water- 

 ing holes, there were several skeletons close together. In a couple of 

 hours dozens of skeletons were seen from which 8 of the best were 

 saved and a box of 10 sent to the United States National Museum. 



Some of the skulls were fairly complete with full sets of teeth 

 in the jaws. Others were broken or partly disintegrated. In view 

 of the fact that they had been there for over a century they showed 

 excellent preservation. Hundreds of others have been seen and 

 reported, and many obtained by local collectors will give important) 

 study material. Thanks to the efforts of George M. Benson, of the 

 Biological Survey, there are now two almost complete skeletons 

 with good skulls of large old bulls in the Bureau's collection. These, 

 with many skulls picked up and contributed by others, afford a fine 

 series for comparison and study. 



Ausmus told the writer that many old pieces of skulls and unmistak- 

 able buffalo bones had been found for years past in the tules along 

 the lake shore when the water was low, but never in such numbers or 

 in so good condition as those now exposed over the lake bottom. 

 Duncan also told of another buffalo skull recently taken from a 

 spring on the Double-O Ranch (OO) west of Harney Lake, by Gus 

 Hurlburt, marking the westernmost record from the Malheur Valley. 



In 1929 Stanley G. Jewett sent the writer a piece of buffalo rib 

 picked up by Robert Sawyer, of Bend, on the site of Old Camp 

 Warner, near Hart Mountain, on the east side of Warner Lake and 

 giving the westernmost Oregon record of buffalo remains so far made 

 known. This is especially important in connecting up the Malheur 

 Valley range with the California range. 



Merriam (1926, pp. 211-214) has traced the buffalo well into north- 

 eastern California through definite and reliable Indian records, show- 

 ing its presence only two generations ago in the Madeline Plains 

 country, near Eagle and Honey Lakes, and in Alturus and Surprise 

 Valleys, as well as at half a dozen places named for them on the 

 Nevada side of the line. Old Indians of several tribes said that 

 their fathers had killed the buffalo on their own territory, and 

 while one tribe considered them permanent residents in Pine Creek 



