154 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



and meat, the herd is now mainly concentrated where it is temporarily less 

 exposed to persecution than on the more accessible plains of Kansas. The 

 range of the herd thus not only changes with the seasons of the year, bul 

 also from year to year, in consequence of attacks upon them at new localities. 

 Unless legal interference, either by the States of Kansas. Colorado, and Texas. 

 or by the general government, be speedily made, and rigorous restrictions 

 most thoroughly enforced, the fate of the buffalo south of the Platte will be a 

 repetition of its history east of the Mississippi River, namely, speedy exter- 

 mination. 



Area now occupied by the Southern Jim/. — The region south of the Platte 

 inhabited by the buffalo is already reduced to a very limited area. At the 

 northward their range extends over only the head-waters of the Republican, 

 and thence westward to the South Platte, to the northward of which river 

 they still sometimes appear, their range thus including the small portion of 

 Southwestern Nebraska that lies south of the Chion Pacific Railway. They 

 range thence southward throughout Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado. 

 the extreme western part of the Indian Territory. Northern and Western 

 Texas, extending in the latter State southward to the 30th parallel, and 

 from the 98th meridian westward over the northern portion of the Staked 

 Plains nearly to the eastern boundary of New Mexico. In 1ST-'! they ranged 

 westward to within a hundred miles of Santa Fe.* 



Region between //«■ Platte River and Parallel of 49 . — Passing to the north- 

 ward of the Platte River, we will consider first the region situated between 

 the Platte River and the United States and British boundary, or the 49th 

 parallel. The buffalo, as is well known, formerly ranged over the whole 

 country drained by the Missouri and its tributaries, as well as over the plains 

 of the lied River of Ihe North, and those of the Assinniboine and the S 

 katchewan. The plains of the Red River, in Northern Minnesota and 



Dakota, formerly connected the greal buffalo range of the Upper .Missouri 



region with that of the Saskatchewan, whilst the Grand Coteau des 1'rairies 

 was For a long tii ne of the regions of their greatest abundance. Begin- 

 ning with Eastern Dakota, or that portion of the Territory easl of the Mis- 

 souri River, embracing the Grand Coteau des Prairies, we shall pass thence to 

 the region between the Missouri River and the I'.'th parallel, and. lastly, 

 their extermination over the vasl triangular area bounded b\ the Mis- 

 souri and Platte Riven and the Rock} Mountain-. 



• II U II nshaw, in i li m. i I,, it.. »iii. i. dated Man l> 6, 



