WESTERN WILD SPOUTS. 157 



Lower Louisiana. We know, however, of one author, Beraard 

 Romans, who wrote in 1774, and who speaks of the Buffalo as 

 a benefit of nature bestowed upon Florida. There can be no 

 doubt that the animal approached the Gulf of Mexico, near the 

 Bay of St. Bernard ; for Alvar Nunez, about the year 1535, 

 saw them not far from the coast ; and Joater, one hundred and 

 fifty yeai-s afterwards, saw them at the Bay of St. Bernard. It 

 is probable that this bay is the lowest point of latitude at which 

 this animal has been found, east of the Rocky Mountains. 

 There can be no doubt of their existence west of those moun- 

 tains, though Father Venegas does not include them among the 

 animals of C alifornia ; and although they were not seen west 

 of the mountains by Lewis and Clark, nor mentioned by Har- 

 mon and Mackenzie, as existing in New California, a country 

 of immense extent, which is included between the Pacific Ocean, 

 the Rocky Mountains, the territory of the United States, and 

 the Russian possessions on the north-west coast of America, yet 

 their existence at present on the Columbia appears to be well 

 ascertained ; and we are told that there is a tradition among the 

 natives, that shortly before the visit of our enterprising ex- 

 plorers, destructive fires had i-aged over the prairies, and driven 

 the Buff"aloes east of the mountains. Mr. Dougherty, the very 

 able and intelligent sub-agent, who accompanied the expedition 

 to the Rocky Mountains, and who communicated so much 

 valuable matter to Mr. Say, asserted that he had seen a few of 

 them in the mountains, but not west of them. It is highly pro- 

 bable that the Buff'alo ranged on the western side of the Rocky 

 Mountains, to as low a latitude as on the eastern side. De Laet 

 says, on the authority of Henera, that they grazed as far south 

 as the banks of the river Yaquimi. In the same chapter this 

 author states, that Martin Perez had, in 1591, estimated the 

 Province of Cinaloa, in which this river runs, to be three hun- 

 dred leagues from the City of Mexico. 



" Although we may not be able to determine with precision, 

 the southern limits of the roamings of the Buffalo west of the 



