INTEODUCTIOX. vii 



Part II, — it was found necessary to examine in detail the alleged evidences 

 of its former existence along the whole Atlantic seaboard from New Eng- 

 land to Florida, over which many writers have assumed that it formerly 

 ranged, — as well as southward to the Gulf coast, — but which a critical 

 examination of the evidence fails to substantiate. Its actual eastern limit 

 at the time of the first exploration of the Atlantic slope by Europeans being 

 settled with as much certainty as available evidence will allow, the region 

 of the Ohio Valley is next considered, where its former limits and relative 

 abundance are traced with considerable fulness, together with its gradual total 

 extirpation therefrom. Subsequently its former range and final extirpation 

 over the trans-Rocky Mountain region is similarly treated. An effort is 

 then made to define its former range south of the Rio Grande. A brief 

 sketch is then given of its extirpation over the greater part of the vast 

 region included between the Rio Grande on the south, the Platte River on 

 the north, the Mississippi River on the east, and the Rocky Mountains on 

 the west, with a definition of its present limited range within this area. 

 The region lying between the Platte River on the south, the United States 

 and British boundary on the north, the Mississippi River on the east, and 

 the Rocky Mountains on the west, is next similarly treated. Finally its 

 former vast range to the northward of the United States is defined, with a 

 history of its extirpation over much of this area, and the limits of its present 

 circumscribed range in the region north of the Platte River. 



The accompanying map is designed to show not only the extreme limits 

 of the known range of the buffalo (which was presumably about its range at 

 the middle of the eighteenth century), but also its range at several different 

 subsequent periods, as well as its habitat at the present time. The outer 

 border of the blue area shows the extreme known range of the buffalo, while 

 the space colored blue represents the area over which this animal had disap- 

 peared prior to the year 1800. The outer border of the pink area shows 

 approximately its extreme limits of distribution at this date, and the area 

 colored pink the portion of country over which it disappeared during the 

 succeeding twenty-five years. The portion colored green represents in like 

 manner its restriction during the next succeeding twenty-five years, or 

 between the years 1825 and 1850. The yellow area similarly shows its 

 restriction between the years 1850 and 1875, and the orange spaces the 

 limited areas over which it still exists. Other tints indicate the localities 

 at which the remains of the extinct species have been found. The boun- 



