Fes., 1912. Mammatrs or ILLInoIs AND Wisconsin — Cory. 89 
seen piled up ready for shipment. At Billings alone I saw a huge 
pile estimated at many car-loads, and it is claimed that in that year 
as many as 200 tons of bones were shipped by a single firm in Miles 
City to be ground for manufacture of fertilizers. 
In the early seventies Buffalo were still numerous, although in 
greatly diminishing numbers, but by 1885 very few were left. In 1888 
I saw in Denver, Colorado, eight fresh skins which it was said were 
killed in a region called Lost Park, in Park County, and the owner 
claimed that there were several more Buffalo there at that time, which 
had not been killed. This proved to be the case and it is claimed that 
in 1890 the herd numbered some twenty individuals. They were 
gradually killed off until in the winter of 1896-97 there were but four 
left, two bulls, a cow and a calf. Mr. T. J. Holland, State Game and 
Fish Commissioner for Colorado, informs me that these were all killed 
in Lost Park in February, 1897. The skins and bones were preserved, 
and in 1910 the specimens were mounted by Mr. J. C. Miles of Denver, 
and at the present time (February, 1911) are on exhibition in a clothing 
store in that city. According to Mr. E. T. Seton* the last record he 
has been able to find is that of four Buffalo having been killed in Texas 
in 1889. Therefore it is fair to assume that the year 1897 saw the last 
of the Wild Buffalo in the United States. 
So far as known the first Buffalo was seen in a wild state by a 
European in the year 1530, when Cabeca de Vaca met with it in “‘ Flor- 
ida,”’} although a captive specimen in the possession of Montezuma 
in Mexico was seen by Cortez in 1521.{ According to Davis, C. de 
Vaca was wrecked at some point on the coast of Louisiana and journeyed 
westward.§ In his journal he describes seeing Buffalo, and we are led 
to infer that the locality was somewhere in the southeastern part of 
Texas. He says, “Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them 
three times and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size 
of those of Spain. They have small horns like those of Morocco, and 
the hair long and flocky like of the merino. Some are light brown 
(pardillas), and others black. To my judgment the flesh is finer and 
sweeter than that of this country. The Indians make blankets of 
those that are not full-grown, and of the larger they make shoes and 
bucklers. They come as far as the sea-coast of Florida, and in a direc- 
* Seton, E. T. Life Histories of Northern Animals, I, 1909, p. 296. 
t French, B. F. Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part IJ, 1846-53, p. 1. 
(Florida at that time included all the country south of Virginia and westward to the 
Spanish possessions in Mexico.) 
t Solis, Antonio de. Historia dela Conquista de Mexico, 1684, (Edition of 1724 
quoted above.) 
