108 THE AMERICAN BISONS 



not so easily settled. Colhoun regards it, and probably correctly, as iden- 

 tical with Lake Ontario, while other writers (among them Many) have ap- 

 plied this reference to Lake Champlain.* The context states that this lake is 

 three hundred miles west of Massachusetts Lay, and that it may be reached 

 by the Hudson Liver, while it is also given as the source of the Potomac. t 



The extreme northeastern limit of the former range of the buffalo seems 

 to have been, as above stated, in Western New York, near the eastern end 

 of Lake Erie. That it probably ranged thus far there is fair evidence. As 

 also already noticed, buffaloes may at times have passed over to the eastern 

 slope of the Alleghanies, since near Lewisburg, Union County, is a stream 

 still bearing the name of Buffalo Creek ; but the accounts of the explora- 

 tion and early settlement of this region make no mention of its occurrence 

 there at the time it was first visited by Europeans. The earliest evidence 

 of their former existence in this region is afforded by a map published by 

 Forster, in 1771, accompanying the English translation of Peter Kalm's 

 travels. On this map a marsh called "Buffalo Swamp" is indicated as situ- 

 ated between the Alleghany Liver and the West Branch of the Susque- 

 hanna, near the heads of the Licking and Toby's Creeks (apparently the 

 streams now called Oil Creek and Clarion Creek). The most explicit tes- 

 timony, however, is that furnished by Mr. Ashe.J who has given an account 



* Marcy (It. I!.) says, "Formerly buffaloes were found in countless herds over almost tin' entire north- 

 ern continent • if America, from the 28th to the 50th degree of north latitude, and from the- shores of Lake 

 Champlain to the Rocky Mountains," and cites this passage From Morton in proof of its existence around 

 Lake Champlain. — Exploration of the /•'<</ River of Louisiana, pp. 103, 104, 1853. 



t '■ And from this Lake Southwards, trends that g IK River called of the Natives Patomack, which 



dischardgetfa herselfe in the parts of Virginea, from whence it i- navigable by shipping of great Burthen up 

 to the Falls (which lieth in 41. Degrees, ami a halfe of North latitude :) ami from the Lake downe to the 

 Falll b) a [aire current." lie adds : " It i- will knownc, thc\ [the Dutch] aims iit that place, and bare a 

 possibility to attaine unto the end of thier desires therein, by meanes, if the River of Mohegan, which of 

 the English i- named Hudsons Liver (where the Dutch have Bettled : to well fortified plantations already. 



.... The Salvages make re|n>rt of :! great Rivers that issue out of this Lake, '.' of which arc to us knownc, 

 the one to be Pal ack the other Canada, and why may not the third he found there likewise, which they 



describe to trend westward, whichis conceaved to discharge herselfe into the South Sea [probably a refer- 

 ence to the Mississippi]." - ffew English Canaan, p. 99j For i '• Hist Trai Is, Vol. II. No. 6, p. f... 



f Mr. Ashe speaks of the fondness "all the animals of tl part-" havi for -alt. and of their rc-ortim_' 



in large numbers to I • Lake to drink of its brackish water-, and adds that the best roads to 



ili - lake were tl hnfl'alo traik- i -..called from having Im'ch observed to be made bj the buffaloes in 



llnir annual visitations to the lake from their pa-tnrc--ronnds j and though this i- a di-tancc of al>o\e 



two hundred mile-, the best surveyor could not have chosen a more direct course, or firmer or better 



•.■round" 'Hie region about Onondaga Lake was thoroughly explored a- earlj a- 1670, and settlements 



, fort erected before 1706. Prim to 1788, lines ol communication had hen established 



