THE AMERICAN BISOXS. 127 



himself now unable to substantiate the statement, but adds, "I distinctly 

 remember being satisfied at the time of what I said." I have myself made 

 extensive inquiries of naturalists and army officers who had either passed 

 through Arizona or had been stationed there for a considerable length of 

 time without being able to elicit any corroborative evidence of Dr. Coues's 

 statement.* 



Extreme Southwestern Limit. — Respecting the extreme southwestern limit 

 of the former range of the buffalo, Keating, on the authority of Colhoun, 

 wrote, in 1823, as follows : " De Laet says, on the authority of Herrera, that 

 they grazed as far south as the banks of the Yaquimi.f In the same chapter 

 this author states that Martin Perez had, in 1591, estimated the Province 

 of Cinaloa, in which this river runs, to be three hundred leagues from the 

 city of Mexico. This river is supposed to be the same which, on Mr. Tan- 

 ner's map of North America (Philadelphia, 1822), is named Hiaqui, $ and 

 situated between the 27th and 28th degrees of north latitude. Perhaps, 

 however, it may be the Rio Gila, which empties itself in latitude 32°." § 



On referring to the works cited by Keating, I find that Herrera gives 

 the statement on the authority of Nufia de Guzman, who made a journey 

 to Cinaloa in 1532. According to a map accompanying De Laet's work, the 

 Province of Cinaloa included the parallels of twenty-seven and twenty-eight 

 degrees. Herrera's statement is as follows: '-En la ribera de Yaquimi ay 

 algunas vacas, y muy grandes ciervos";|| — simply that many cattle and 

 many deer of very large size were found on the banks of the Yaquimi. In 

 the context, nor in any of the old writings descriptive of this region at 

 the time it was first visited by the Spaniards, do I find any further state- 

 ments that could by the freest license of translation be rendered bison or 

 buffalo. As the only species of the deer family found in this region is the 

 little Oervus mexicanus, one of the smallest deer found in X<>rt/t America, the 

 phrase muy grandes ciervos can only refer to this species, and gives at once 



* Dr. W. J. Hoffman, under date of " Reading, Penn., June 19, 1875," writes me that he •• found no tra- 

 dition amongst any of the tribes in Arizona, by which we might infer that their ancestors were acquainted 

 with this animal. The tribes visited are located in the northern part of Arizona (Plateau del Colorado), 

 in the Mosollon Mts., Sierra Blanca, and along the Rio Gila and as far eastward as the Rio Colorado- 

 chiquito." 



t "Juxta Yaquimi fluminis ripas tauri vaecasque et prcegrandes cervi pascuntur." — De Lakt, America 

 Utriusque Descriptio, Lugd. Batav. Anno 1633, Lib. 6. Cap. 6." p. 286. 



% The Rio Yaqui, doubtless, of modern maps. 



§ Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, Vol. II, p. 28. 



|| Herrera (Antonio de), Historia de las Tndias Occidentales, Tomo III, p. 16. (Ed. of 1728.) 



