THE AMERICAN BISONS. 169 



region they have now nearly or quite disappeared. Hind reports finding 

 bones and horns of buffaloes on the Assinniboine Eiver, between Fort Garry 

 and Prairie Portage, in 1857, but makes no mention of the occurrence of the 

 animals themselves there at that date, but says they were still found on the 

 sage plains further north. The Red River hunters at this time, he says, 

 went part to the plains of the Saskatchewan, and part to the Yellowstone 

 and Coteau de Missouri for their buffaloes.* Alexander Ross, writing at 

 about the same elate, also says, " Formerly all this part of the country [Red 

 River Plains] was overrun by wild buffalo, even as late as 1810"; but adds, 

 " Of late years the field of chase has been far distant from the Pembina 

 Plains." t 



Simpson reports that buffaloes were abundant on the plains south of the 

 Saskatchewan in the winter of 1836, and that the country about Carlton 

 House was completely intersected with their deeply-worn trails, and strewed 

 with their skeletons ; from this region they had been temporarily driven by 

 the autumnal fires. He also met with a few buffaloes* on the Clear Water 

 River, a little above its junction with the Athabasca. In January, 1840, 

 they were also extremely abundant about Carlton House, t 



Respecting the range and the migrations of the buffalo within the British 

 Possessions about the year 1858, Hind observes as follows : " Red River 

 hunters recognize two grand divisions of buffalo, those of the Grand Coteau 



and Red River, and those of the Saskatchewan The north-western 



buffalo ranges are as follow. The bands belonging to the Red River Range 

 winter on the Little Souris, and south-easterly towards and beyond Devil's 

 Lake, and thence on to Red River and the Shayenne. Here, too, they are 

 found in the spring. Their course then lies west towards the Grand Coteau 

 de Missouri until the month of June, when they turn north, and revisit the 

 Little Souris from the west, winding round the flank of Turtle Mountain to 

 Devil's Lake, and by the Main River (Red River), to the Sbayenne again. 

 In the memory of many Red River hunters, the buffalo were accustomed to 

 visit the. prairies of the Assinniboine as far north as Lake Manitobah, where 

 in fact their skulls and bones are now to be seen ; their skulls are also seen 

 on the east side of the Red River of the North, in Minnesota, but the living 



* Hind (II. Y.), Canadian, Red River, Assinniboine, and Saskatchewan Exploring Expeditions, Vol. II, 

 p. 272. 



f The Red River Settlement : Its Rise, Progress, and Present State, p. 1 5. 



t Simpson (Thomas), Narrative of the Discovery of the North Coast of America, London, 1813, pp. -10, 

 45, 46, GO, 402, 404. 



