74 THE AMERICAN BISON& 



periods of their journeys. When no reference whatever is made to the buf- 

 falo in the narratives of different travellers who passed at different times 

 over the same region, it has been assumed, in the total absence also of all 

 other evidence to the contrary, that the buffalo did not, during that period 

 at least, exist over the special area in question. 



The use of the term vaches saitvages by many of the early French Jesuit 

 writers, and that of wild coma by some of the early English explorers, and 

 also the terms buffe, buffle, and icevf sauvage, for the designation of the moose 

 [Alces makkis) and the elk (Cervus canadensis) as well as the buffalo, has 

 resulted in erroneous conclusions in respect to the former range of the 

 buffalo. Difficulties have also often arisen in respect to the identification 

 of localities from the fact that the names of rivers, lakes, etc., were often dif- 

 ferently applied by different writers, and were frequently entirely different 

 from those now employed to designate the same landmarks. Care, however, 

 has been taken to trace out, in such cases, the modem equivalents of the 

 older geographical names. 



For convenience of treatment the former supposed habitat of the buffalo 

 is divided into several districts, which are treated separately in what has 

 seemed to be their most natural order. 



Tiik Eastern Boundary of the former Habitat of the Buffalo 

 considered, including an examination of the alleged evidence 

 of its Occurrence in New England, the Canadas, the maritime 



PARTS OF THE MlDUI.E STATES, VIRGINIA, THE CaROLENAS, ANT) 



Flortda. 



Afl already stated, many prominent authorities have regarded the range 

 of the buffalo as formerly extending eastward to the Atlantic Coast, including 

 the Middle States, and even portions of New England and the Canadas. while 

 others seem to have had no doubl of its former existence from New York along 

 the seaboard to Florida. Its former occurrence in the western parts of North 

 and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, is established be- 

 yond question; bul its presence elsewhere on the Atlantic slope is highly 

 questionable. Dr. Richardson, writing in L829, says: "At the period when 

 Europeans began to form settlements in North America this animal was occa- 

 sionally met with on the Atlantic Coast," etc.' De Kay, writing in L842, 



• Richardson, Faon Bor. Americana, Vol I. p 



