150 THE AMERICAS BISONS. 



parties near Pike's Peak in 1873. and that in 1875 there was a hand of about 

 nineteen on the west side of Pike's Peak, and another hand of about sixty 

 mar Mt. Lincoln in the South Park. Mr. C. E. Aiken, probably referring to 

 these, writes me that he knows of but two bands existing at the present 

 time (February, 1876) in the mountains about South Park, one of which 

 " grazes on the mountains at the head of Tarryall Creek, and is frequently 

 found above timber-line; the other ranges in the rugged mountains south 

 of Pike's Peak, and numbers some thirty or forty individuals." 



In 1871 their bleached skulls were still frequent in the valley of the 

 North Platte, in Western Wyoming, as well as on the Laramie Plains, hut 1 

 was assured that only stragglers had been seen in all this region during the 

 previous ten or fifteen years.* Stansbury reports meeting with them in 

 abundance on Pass Creek and other head-waters of the North Platte in 

 1849.J 



In respect to the extermination of the buffalo along the western edge of 

 the plains in Colorado, and the present western boundary of the Southern 

 Herd. I have been favored with a valuable communication from Mr. Wil- 

 liam N. Byers, editor and proprietor of the ■• Pocky Mountain News.'' In 

 kindly answer to my inquiries he thus refers (writing under date of July 3, 

 1875) to the gradual extermination of the buffalo along the eastern base of 

 the Rocky Mountains. He says: " Perhaps the best idea I can give you of 

 the shrinkage of the column on this side is gathered from the history of the 

 early trading-posts established here, mainly for barter in their hides. The 

 first trading-post in this [South Platte] valley was built in 1832, six miles 

 In-low Denver, and about fifteen miles, direct, from the mountain foot. A 

 trader employed here from 1832 to 1836 told me that lie thought that he 

 never looked out over the wall.-- of the fort without seeing buffalo, and some- 

 times they covered the plain. At that time their moving columns surged 

 up against the mountain foot. Five or six years later the next fort was 

 built live or six miles down the river, then a third a few miles below the 

 second, and. about L840, a fourth, nearly twenty miles liclow the third, or 

 loity mid mile- from the mountains There the trade was concentrated and 



the up-river forts were successively abandoned, owing to the decrease of the 



buffalo in their vicinity. Put great herds of buffaloes occasionally ranged 

 over i hi- present -it'- of Denver as late as 1846. 



Q I [fi tltntc V., I VI. p SO. 



t Sili I, ;ik.- Expedition, | | 



