17H THE AMEEII AN BISONS. 



animal is very rarely to be me1 with. A few years ago they wore accus- 

 tomed to puss on (he east side of Turtle Mountain, through the Blue Hills 

 of the Souris, but of late years their wanderings in this direction have 

 ceased; experience teaching them that their enemies, the half-breeds, have 

 approached too near their haunts in thai direction. 



-The country about the west side of Turtle Mountain, in June, 1858, was 

 scored with their tracks at one of the crossing places on the Little Souris, as 

 if deep parallel ruts had been artificially cut down the hill-sides. These ruts, 

 often one foot deep and sixteen inches broad, would converge from the 

 prairie for many miles to a favorite crossing or drinking place; and they are 

 often seen in regions in which the buffalo is no longer a visitor. 



"The great western herds winter between the south and north branches 

 of the Saskatchewan, south of the Touchwood Hills, and beyond the north 

 Saskatchewan in the valley of the Athabaska ; they cross the South Branch 

 in June and July, visit the prairies on the south side of the Touchwood Hill 

 range, and cross the* Qu'appelle valley anywhere between the Elbow of the 

 South Branch and a few miles west of Fort Ellice, on the Assinniboine. 

 They then strike for the Grand Coteau de Missouri, and their eastern flank 

 often approaches the Red River herds coining north from the Grand Coteau. 

 They then proceed across the Missouri up the Yellow Stone, and return to 

 the Saskatchewan anil Athabaska as winter approaches, by the Banks of the 

 Bocky Mountains. We saw many small herds, belonging to the western 

 bands, cross the Qu'appelle valley and proceed in single file towards the 

 Grand Coteau de Missouri in .Inly L858. The ''astern hands, which we had 

 expected to find on tlie Little Souris. were on the main liver ( lied River is BO 



termed by the half-breeds hunting in this quarter). They had proceeded 

 early thither, far to the south of their usual track, in consei|iience of the 

 devastating fires which swept the plains from the Rocky Mountains to Red 

 River in the autumn of 1867. We met hulls all moving south, when ap- 

 proaching fort Ellice ; they had come from their winter quarters near the 

 Touchwood Hill range. Aa a general rule the Saskatchewan bands of buf- 

 falo go north during the autumn and Bouth during the summer. The Little 

 Souris and main river bands go north-weal in summer and south-east in au- 

 tumn."* Hind also stj&tes thai the buffaloes still frequented the eastern 

 Sank of the Rock} Mountains.1 



• Hind (J. II.), Narrative of the Canadian Red River Expedition of 1867, and of the Andnniboine and 

 icwan Exploring Expeditions ot 1808, Vol II. pp. 107 109. See itkw V..1. I, p| 



t H.i.l, V.. I. II. p 106, 



