106 THE AMERICAN BISOMS. 



Meadows here extend beyond Sight, in which the Buffalo go in Herds of 2 

 or 3 hundred."* In describing the country bordering the Illinois River, 

 below the junction of the Kankakee, he says : '• In this Route we see only 

 vast Meadows, with little Clusters of Trees here and there, which seem to 

 have been planted by the Hand ; the Grass grows so high in them, that one 

 might lose one's self amongst it; but everywhere we meet with Paths that 

 are as beaten as they can be in the most populous Countries ; yet nothing 

 passes through them but Buffaloes, and from Time to Time some Herds of 

 Deer, and some Roe-Bucks." Later he writes: "The 6th [of October, 17-1] 

 we saw a great Number of Buffaloes crossing the River in a great Hurry"; 

 and adds that they soon provided themselves with food "by killing a Buffalo 

 or Roe-Buck, and of these we had the Choice." t 



Yaudreuil alludes to their abundance on Rock River in 1718. From the 

 bluffs along this river, he says. •• you behold roaming through the prairie 

 herds of buffalo of Illinois.":}: Pittman, writing fifty years later, describes the 

 country of the Illinois Indians as abounding with "buffalo, deer, and wild 

 fowl." § 



The buffalo seems also to have been abundant over large portions of In- 

 diana. Charlevoix, writing of the Ohio River in 1720. says : •• All the Country 

 that is watered by the Ouabache [Ohio], and by the Ohio [Wabash] which 

 runs into it, is very fruitful: It consists of vast Meadows, well-watered. 

 where the wild Buffaloes feed by Thousands." ! Yaudreuil. writing at about 

 the same time, says, in his "Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and 

 the Mississippi" : " Whoever would wish to reach the ."Mississippi easily would 



nerd only to take this Beautiful river [Ohio] or the Sandosquel [Sandusky]; 

 he could travel without any danger of fasting, for all who have been there 

 have repeatedly assured me thai there is a vasl quantity of Buffalo and of 

 all other animals in the woods along that Beautiful River; they were often 

 obliged to discharge their guns to clear n passage."^ 

 There is further evidence also of the former abundance of the buffalo in 



isfa Edition, pp 

 t Letters, Goadby'a English Edition, p. 290. 

 I New York Coll. of MSS D 



^ Pittman (Captain Philip), Prcsenl State of the European Settlcnu nts on the Mississippi, p. Bl, I ■"■" 

 The region rcfrrrcd i" i- described in tl ncloscd bj the Mississippi on the west, * 1 ■ » - 



Dlinois on the north, the * Hiio on the south, and the Wal (0 iche) and " Miamii " on li* 

 | Letters, Goadby'i English i d., i 



a Y..rk < ..II. ol MSS., Parii Doi , VII, | 



