THE AMERICAN BISONS. 75 



also leaves it to be inferred that the buffalo existed generally along the 

 Atlantic slope south of New York. He says : " The bison, or American buf- 

 falo, has long since been extirpated from this State [New York] ; and although 

 it is not at present found east of the Mississippi, yet there is abundant testi- 

 mony from various writers to show that this animal was formerly numerous 

 along the Atlantic coast, from New York to Mexico." * Unfortunately, how- 

 ever, he gives no reference to any of this " abundant testimony." Captain R. 

 B. Marcy, writing in 1853, says: "Formerly, buffaloes were found in count- 

 less herds over almost the entire northern continent of America, from the 

 twenty-eighth to the fiftieth degree of north latitude, and from the shores 

 of Lake Champlain to the Rocky Mountains," f and also cites a number of 

 supposed references to its occurrence in Newfoundland, New England, and 

 Virginia. Professor Baird, as late as 1857, also states as follows : " The 

 American buffalo was formerly found throughout the entire eastern por- 

 tion of the United States to the Atlantic Ocean, and as far south as 

 Florida." $ 



Region North of North Carolina. — Various writers during the last part of 

 the sixteenth and the early part of the seventeenth centuries speak also of 

 its occurrence in Canada, New England, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Florida ; 

 but some of these countries then embraced regions of indefinite extent to 

 the westward, and thus often (as in the case of Canada and Florida, cer- 

 tainly), did in those early times include a portion of the range of the buf- 

 falo. But upon careful examination of the writings of these authors I have 

 failed to find a single mention of the occurrence of this animal within the 

 present limits of New York, New England, Canada, or Florida that will bear 

 a critical examination. On the other hand, in a score or more distinct 

 enumerations of the animals of Virginia and New England, made prior to 

 1650, not a single allusion is made to the buffalo as existing on the At- 

 lantic slope, north of the Carolinas, although all the other larger mam- 

 mals are mentioned, and here and there described with sufficient detail 

 to render them unquestionably recognizable. § Furthermore, no remains 



* Zoology of New York, Vol. I, p. 110, 1842. 



t Marcy's Exploration of the Red River, p. 103, 1853. 



% Mammals of N. America, p. 684. See also Patent-Office Report, Agricultural, 1851-527 p. 124, 1852. 



§ A few of these general notices, taken from a variety of sources, but largely from Hakluyt's and 

 Purchas's collections of voyages, are appended as examples of their general character : — 



James Cartier, or Jacques Carthier, in 1534, reported "great store of wilde beasts, as Faunes, Stags, 

 Beares, Marternes, Hares and Foxes, with divers other sorte," on the St. Lawrence, but mentions no other 



