140 THE AMERICAN BISONS 



met with each day appear to be duly chronicled.* We are further led to 

 infer the entire absence at this time of buffaloes in Texas by some remarks 

 made by Captain Pope, in his General Report, respecting the Comanche 

 Indians, whose country was on the head-waters of the Canadian and Red 

 Rivers, in the extreme northern part of Texas. He says: ''During the sum- 

 mer months nearly the whole tribe migrates to the north, to hunt buffalo 

 and wild horses on the plains of the Upper Arkansas." t 



Captain H. M. Lazelle, 8th U. S. Infantry, informs me that in 1859 there 

 •were no buffaloes in New Mexico, nor in Texas west of the 09th meridian, 

 but that there were vast numbers in Northern Texas between the meridians 

 of 99° and 96°; but that they did not extend so far south as Pope's old trail 

 of 18544 



Hence it appears that for quite a number of j'ears the buffaloes nearly 

 abandoned Texas, or visited only its northwestern portions, and were of 

 somewhat uncertain occurrence, in summer at least, as far north as the Cana- 

 dian. Of late, however, they have again become common over a consider- 

 able portion of the northwestern part of the State, occasionally extending 

 southward along the 100th meridian almost to the Rio Grande. Major- 

 General M. C Meigs, Quartermaster-General of the United States Army, says, 

 in some valuable MS. notes on the buffalo, § that in the winter of 1869—70 

 he saw their carcasses near Fort Concho, Texas, "showing that the buffalo 

 had been abundant in that neighborhood the previous year." The prairies 

 having been extensively burned that winter about Concho, the buffaloes had 

 not appeared within twenty miles of the post that season. He also Bays 

 that in the winter of L871 — 72 they extended their migrations westward to 

 thr Staked Plains. || 



Mr. -I. Boll, the well-known entomological collector, also informs me that 

 during the winter of L874 — 75 thej were still more abundant over quite a 

 large part of Northern Texas, doubtless in consequence of their persecution 

 by the hunters in Southwestern Kansas. Respecting the eastern boundary of 



• Pacific II- R. Exploration and Surveys, Vol. II. Pope'i Exploration of the 38d Parallel) from the Red 

 River to the Rio Grande, pp. 01 

 + [bid . p, r, 

 ; Pope's trail cros* the Dflfb meridian In aboal latitude 88° 80', and strikes the Pecos in longitude 



i latitude 81 ■■■<>'. el Emigrant Crossing. 

 si For access to this interesting paper I am indebted to the kindness oi Dr. Elliott Coues, the eminent 

 onritholo 



\|- Not- ■ on th< Bufl 



