168 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



at Great Slave Lake. At present, however, they are confined within much 

 narrower limits than formerly, ami are quite absent over large areas that 

 once were among their favorite resorts.* 



The following abstracts and quotations embrace the more important refer- 

 ences to the range and extermination of the buffalo in British North Amer- 

 ica, and are arranged nearly in a chronological order. In 1 7 ' ' Mackenzie 

 found buffaloes in considerable numbers on Peace River, along which they 

 extended westward to the base of the Rocky Mountains.! At this time they 

 abounded also on the plains between the Assinniboine, Red. and Missouri 

 Rivers, as well as on both branches of the Saskatchewan and their tribu- 

 taries, t 



Ross Coxe, in June, 1812, also found the buffalo in small numbers on the 

 head-waters of the Assinniboine River and its tributaries, § but from all this 



* According to the observations of Mr. W. II. Dall, and others, n near ally of the buffalo (the Bison 

 antiquus Leidy = /i crasticornu Richardson) formerly existed considerably to the northwestward of 

 the former range of the living species, extending throughout probably nearly the whole of Alaska, 

 The evidences of this consist in the occurrence of their fossil remains at different localities in tin- 

 valley of the Yukon and elsewhere. In answer to inquiries of mine, Mr. Dall wrote me, under 

 S;m Francisco, Cal., January 23, 1871, as follows, respecting the distribution of these re- 

 mains: "Your letter is at hand, and in reply I can only say that the bones of the bison are 

 found on the Upper Ynkon, from the ramparts eastward and northward, and also at Kotzebue Sound. 

 They arc found, like all the remains of tertiary mammals in that region, on or very near the surface, and 

 ■ iallv abundant on the Kotlo River, which falls into tin- Yukon above Fort Yukon [latitude 66°, 

 longitude 1 II", — just west of the United States and British boundary]. The remains I have seen, with 

 ; the elephant (in similar situations), are black and fossilized. The bones of the musk-ox and 



mountain goat, Oil the contrary, are white, and look very recent. The latter animal is still rarely found 



living on the mountains mar the Upper Yukon. The bison remains which I have seen have been princi- 

 pally horn-cores and the remain- of tin- cranium and lower jaws. The indications are that the Elepkas 

 primigeniui and the fossil bison were contemporaries, but that the musk-ox was n later comer. However, 

 this idea rests merely on the appearance of the bones, as the bones of all (a> well as the remains 

 horses) are found together in a bed of blue clay, near the surface, at Kotzebue Sound, and (barring the 

 horses) all over the Upper Yukon Valley, in similar positions, irregularly scattered on the ground. I 

 (bund the cranium of an elephant in the grass at the mouth of the Yukon, skulk of mu>k oven ami bisons 



on the surface in little valleys in the Ramparts, and on the alluvial plain near Fort Yukon." 



In addition to the ahove, I have since been informed l.v Mr 1 >all that he obtained a complete skflU, 



cxc.pt the lower jaw. on the Sitzikuntcn River, |ust below the Ramparts of the Yukon, in about latitude 

 66° and longitude 181°, and oiler fragments about fifty miles lower down tin 1 Yukon. The skull was 

 unfortunately lost during the subsequent journej down the river. [The above should have been imerted 



in connection with the history of Biton (inliqmu, but was accidentally omitted] 



t Mackenzie (Sir Alexander), Travels to the Polar Sea and to tin I in the yuan 1789 



Bl, Vol II. pp. 1 17, IBS, 150, .177. 

 t Ibid . pp. Ixl, l\ii. I\v. I\i\ 

 |J Advcntun- on the Columbia ltivcr, | 



