126 THE AMERICA*) BISONS 



location of the famed kingdom of Cibola by the early explorers, there do not 

 seem to be any well-authenticated accounts of the existence of these animals 

 west of the Rio Grande."* It appears, however, t hat two centuries ago 

 these animals were not unknown to the Indians of the Gila and Zuni Rivers, 

 who obtained their skins from the tribes living several hundred miles to the 

 eastward. Thus Friar Marco de Nica, in 1539, found "ox-hides" in the pos- 

 se—ion of the Indians living on the tributaries of the Gila, which they had 

 obtained by trading with the people of the kingdom of Cibolajt the ancient 

 pueblo of Cibola being generally supposed to lie near the site of the present 

 pueblo of Zuni, on the river of that name. J The people of Cibola at this 

 time not only used the skins as articles of dress, but for shields and other 

 purposes. 



From the Yampah and Grand, and other tributaries of the Colorado, the 

 buffalo formerly ranged eastward to the Parks and Great Plains, but I have 

 found no record of their existence in the highlands of New Mexico, or any- 

 where to the westward or southward of Santa Fe. Coronado. during his 

 great expedition in search of the "Kingdom of Cibola" (1540 to 1543), in 

 marching northward from the western province- of Mexico across Arizona to 

 the plains east of Santa Fe, met with no buffaloes till he reached a place 

 called Cicuic, situated on the Pecos near the site of the present town of that 

 name. ^ •• four leagues eastward from which place they met a new kind of 

 oxen, wild and fierce, whereof, the first day, they killed fourscore, which miI- 

 ficed the army with flesh." 



Dr. Elliott Cones, however, in his paper on the " Quadrupeds of Arizona," 

 published in the American Naturalist in 1868, states that '-there is abundant 

 evidence that the buffalo [Boi amerieamis) formerly ranged over Arizona, 

 though none exist there now." < )n requesting recently more detailed in- 

 formation of Dr. Coues respecting this evidence, he writes* that he finds 



Colorado Daring tbii journe} he was probably in the vicinity of Otah Lake.™ This route would 



take him across the range of the buffalo west "( the Rocky Mountains, since, ;i» already stated, the) at 

 ili.it time existed on the head waters of the Colorado, and extended as far west .i- Utah Lake. 



* Whipple's Itinerary, Pacific B R I icplorations and Surveys, Vol 111. Pari [, p 86. 



t Eke Niii'-' account ofhis journey ;i- translated by Hakluyt — f/dbfuyf's Voyagi . Vol III. p 



* I>.i\i-'. Spanish Conquest <>f New Mexico, pp. 119, ISO, footnote, 



i: II is, I,,'. Map ol ' oronado's route in Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and Prospects "i the 

 Indian Tribes of the United IV, plate UL 



| V..I. I. |, 640 



* I fn !• : •! iti ■■> Washington, 1> C, W 



