BUFFALO. 101 
After breakfast, this morning, the Captain started (as was _ 
his usual custom when in camp) to hunt and explore in the 
neighbourhood. He returned with news of having seen 
tracks of quite a herd of buffalo, a most unusual thing now 
in this country, and which &xcited us all very much, as a 
buffalo hunt is the prime sport of the prairies. 
This animal is rapidly disappearing from the plains. But 
eight years since, herds roamed d the City of Austin, and 
were frequently seen in the streets; now there are but few to 
be found south of Red River, so that a sight even, but of all 
things a chase, would have been an episode in our camp life, 
_ affording us both interest and excitement. As the species is 
becoming extinct, all facts connected with their history 
become interesting and important. 
They were once found in countless herds over almost the 
whole continent of North America, from Lake Champlain to 
the Rocky Mountains, and from the twenty-eighth to the 
fiftieth degree of North latitude, and were then only killed in 
quantity sufficient to furnish the Indian with food, clothing 
and lodges, but the havoc made among them by white men 
for their skins, and thousands of them for their tongues alone, 
‘has thinned their numbers, and driven them to a narrow 
section of country, between the settlements and ‘the base of 
the Rocky Mountains. A few extracts from ancient authors 
may not be uninteresting in connection with this subject. 
In a work published at Amsterdam, in 1637, called “ New 
—_— Canaan,” by Tl as Morton, f the first settlers 
