72 



however, following after Lawson and Catesby, adopted the term Buffalo, 

 which is now its accepted common name, and no more a misnomer than 

 is "Rabbit" for the American Hare,or "Robin" as applied to Turdusmigra- 

 torius. 



Distribution. — The range of the Bison formerly extended from Great 

 Slave Lake, latitude 62°, to the north-eastern provinces of Maine, and as 

 far south at latitude 2-3°. 



In British North America the range extended from the Rocky Moun- 

 tains to a line running south-eastward from Great Slave Lake to the 

 Lake of the Woods. 



In the United States it ex+iended west of the Rocky Mountains, even 

 to the Sierra Nevada ranges. Within fifty years it occupied the country 

 about the headwaters of the Green and Grand Rivers. 



East of the Rocky Mountains its range extended southward far beyond 

 the Rio Grande, and eastward throughout the region drained by the 

 Ohio River and its tributaries. Its north 'rn limit east of the Mississippi 

 was the Great Lakes, along which it extended eastward to near the eastern 

 end of Lake Erie. It is known to have occurred south of the Tennes- 

 see and east of the AUeghanies, chiefly in the upper districts of North 

 and South Carolina. 



The present range of the Bison is in two distinct and comparatively 

 small areas — the northern, from the sources of the principal southern 

 tributaries of the Yellowstone, northward into the British possessions, 

 embracing an area not much greater than the present territory of Mon- 

 tana; the southern district is chiefly limited to Western Kansas, a part 

 of the Indian Territory, and North-western Texas — a region about equal 

 to the present State of Texas. 



The Bison in Ohio. — Mr. J. A. Allen has in his memoir a very detailed 

 account of the distribution of the Buffalo and the history of its extermi- 

 nation in the region of the Mississippi, drawn from the early histories 

 and explorations. Vaudreuil, writing about 1720, in his "Memoirs of 

 the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi," speaks of the 

 abundance of Buffalo on the Sandusky and Onio Rivers. La Hanton, in 

 his description of Lake Erie, about 1687, says : 



" I can not express what quantities of deer and tnrkeys are to be found in these woods 

 and in the vast woods that lie upon the south side of the lake. At the bottom of the 

 lake we find beeves upon the banks of two pleasant rivers that disembouge into it with- 

 out cataracts or rapid currents." 



Vaudreuil, in 1718, says of Lake Erie : 



"There is no need of fasting on either side of this lake, deer are to be found there in 

 such abundance. Buffaloes are found on the south, but not on the north shore." 



