THE AMERICAN BISONS. 121 



the Yampah, and the upper tributaries of Green River ; but the scarcity of 

 water seemed to have forced the greater part of them southward. Respect- 

 ing their occurrence near Bridger's Fork of the Muddy, Stansbury says : 

 " As long as the water lasted, the whole plain must have been covered with 

 buffalo and antelope, as the profusion of ' sign ' abundantly proved ; but as 

 this indispensable article was absorbed by the sandy soil, they seemed, from 

 the direction of their trails, to have struck a course for the Vermilion." * 



They have, however, long since disappeared from the head-waters of Green 

 River, and, indeed, from all the country drained by the tributaries of the 

 Colorado. Although their bleached skulls are still found throughout the 

 valleys, I was informed by old hunters whom I saw there in the autumn of 

 1871, that no buffaloes had been seen in this region for more than twenty 

 years. 



The best account of their range in recent times, west of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and of their extermination over this vast region, is that given by Fre- 

 mont, based on his own extensive travels and on the still more extended 

 experience of Mr. Fitzpatrick. Fremont states that in the spring of 1821 

 " the buffalo were spread in immense numbers over the Green River and 

 Bear River Vallej^s, and through all the country l} r ing between the Colorado, 

 or Green River of the Gulf of California, and Lewis's Fork of the Columbia 

 River ; the meridian of Fort Hall then forming the western limit of their 

 range. The buffalo then remained for many years in that country, and fre- 

 quently moved down the Valley of the Columbia, on both sides of the river, 

 as far as the Fishing Fulls. Below this point they never descended in any 

 numbers.! About 1834 or 1835 they began to diminish very rapidly, and 

 continued to decrease until 1838 or 1840, when, with the country we have 

 just described, they entirely abandoned all the waters of the Pacific north 

 of Lewis's Fork of the Columbia. At that time the Flathead Indians were 

 in the habit of finding their buffido on the heads of Salmon River and other 

 streams of the Columbia, but now [1843] they never meet with them farther 

 west than the three forks of the Missouri or the plains of the Yellowstone 

 River. 



" In the course of our journey it will be remarked that the buffalo have 

 not so entirely abandoned the waters of the Pacific, in the Rocky Mountain 



* Stansbury's Expedition to the Great Salt Lake, p. 238. 



f The locality at which Professor Marsh found the crumbling bones of the buffalo is some two hundred 

 and fifty miles further northwest, or lower down the river. See anteh, p. 110. 



