138 ZOOLOGY. 



BOS AMERICANUS, Gmelin. 



American Buffalo ; Bison. 



Baied, Gen. Rep., Mammals, 682. 



The American Buffalo. — Jedediah S. Smith says that prior to 1830 the most western limit of 

 this animal was at the head of the river Malade, (a branch of Snake river,) heading in the 

 Salmon River mountains. Angus McDonald, esq., of the Hudson Bay Company, tells me 

 that he found a buifalo skull in the canon of Snake river, at the foot of the Great Shoshonee 

 Falls, eight miles above Rock creek. Wilkes, or Fi'emont, gives the Pont Neuf as their 

 boundary in 1841. In 1845 they left the valley of Bear river, and I doubt whether they now 

 cross Green river, or even come through the South Pass. Formerly, it is said, they were quite 

 plentiful in the British possessions ivtst of the Rocky mountains. I was told in 1853, by an 

 old Iroquis hunter, that a lost bull had been killed twenty-five years before in the Grand 

 Coulee; but this was an extraordinary occurrence, perhaps before unknown. — G. 



The only buffalo that I have heard of which has been killed within late years north of the 

 South Pass and west of the Rocky mountains was a "lost" bull, which was seen and killed at 

 Horse Plain, at the junction of the Flathead and Hell Gate rivers, on the day I passed it on 

 my canoe voyage in November, 1853. The Indians were in great glee, saying "The buffalo 

 are coming hack among us!" a hope in which, it is needless to say, they have been disappointed. 

 Their remark, however, would indicate that these animals formerly were abundant in the 

 valleys on the headwaters of Clark's Fork of the Columbia. — S. 



ANIMALS INTRODUCED INTO OREGON AND WASHINGTON TERRITORIES. 



Horned Cattle. 



Horned cattle of the wild Spanish variety were introduced into Oregon from California a 

 few years ago by the Hudson Bay Company. Having increased rapidl}', iu 1850 there were 

 about 4,000 head on the Nisqually plains. Although private property they have become 

 so wild that they have to be hunted and killed on horseback, like buffixlo. Owing to the 

 rapid settlement of the country and to other causes, these wild cattle are now (1855) 

 becoming rapidly exterminated. The jargon word for cattle is Moos-moos, and is a corruption 

 of Moos moos-chin, the Walla-Walla word for buffalo. — G. 



The California cattle are now done away with to a great extent in both our northwestern 

 Territories, having given place to the better breed of domestic stock which have been driven 

 across from the valley of the Mississippi. It is said that a cross between the two kinds adds 

 great hardiness to the stock, and that a dash — say one-fourth or one-eighth — of the Spanish 

 blood is really an improvement to the breed. — S. 



The Horse. 



The Yakimas (living north of the Columbia) say that they first obtained the horse from the 

 Flatheads. The latter probably got them from the Snakes, who, in their turn, probably obtained 

 them from the Comanches. Garry, the Spokane chief, cannot say how long it is since bis tribe 

 got them. Lewis and Clark's description of the standard of the Oregon horse is far superior 

 to that of the present stock. It is probable that they have much deteriorated by promiscuous 

 breeding, and by the introduction of the white horse. 



