1.^8 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



mountains, the fact of their existence there in great abundance 

 is amply settled by the testimony of De Laet, on the authority 

 of Gomara, 1. 6., c. 17, and of Purchas, p. 778. Its limits to the 

 north are not easier to determine. In Hakluyt's collection, we 

 find in the account of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's voyages, which 

 commenced in 1583, that there are said to be in the Island of 

 Newfoundland, ' Buttolfles, or a beast, it seemeth by the tract and 

 foote, very large in the manner of an Oxe.' It may, however, 

 be questioned, whether these were not Musk Oxen, instead of 

 the common Buffalo, or Bison, of our prairies. We have no 

 authority of any weight which warrants us in admitting that the 

 Buffalo existed north of Lakes Ontario, Erie, &c., and east of 

 Lake Superior. From what we know of the country between 

 Nelson's River, Hudson's Bay, and the lower lakes, including 

 New South Wales and Upper Canada, we are inclined to 

 believe the Buffalo never abounded there, if indeed any were 

 ever found north of the lakes. But west of Lake Winnepeck, 

 we know that they are found as far north as the 62d degree of 

 north latitude. Captain Franklin's party killed one on Salt 

 River, about the 60th degree. Probably they are found all 

 over the prairies, which are bounded on the north by a line, 

 commencing at the point at which the 62d degree meets the 

 base of the Rocky Mountains, and running in a south-easterly 

 direction, to the southern extremity of Lake Winnepeck, which 

 is very little north of the 50th degree. On the Saskatchewan, 

 Buffalo are very abundant. It may be proper to mention here, 

 that the small white Buffalo, of which Mackenzie makes fre- 

 quent mention, on the authority of the Indians, who told him 

 that they lived in the mountains, is probably not the Bison ; 

 for Lewis and Clarke inform us, that the Indians designated by 

 that name the Mountain Sheep. It is probable that west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, the Buffalo does not extend far north of the 

 Columbia. At present it is scarcely seen east of the Missis- 

 sippi, and south of the St. Lawrence. Governor Cass's party 

 found, in 1819, Buffalo on the east side of the Mississippi, 



