Fres., 1912. MamMats or ILLINOIS AND WISCONSIN — Cory. gl 
now trampling by in ponderous columns or filing in long lines, morn- 
ing, noon and night, to drink at the river — wading, plunging, and 
snorting in the water; climbing the muddy shores, and staring with 
wild eyes at the passing canoes.’’* 
Other Jesuit missionaries, including Marest, Gravier, Charlevoix, 
and Hennepin have written concerning the abundance of Buffalo 
observed by them during their travels in Illinois.t Charlevoix (172,1) 
while crossing from St. Joseph River to the ‘“Theakiki’” [Kankakec] 
Earliest known picture of a Buffalo as given in Gomara’s Historia general de las Indias, 1852-53. 
soon found them in abundance. He says, ‘“‘The country begins to be 
fine: The meadows here extend beyond Sight, in which the Buffalo go 
in Hurds of 2 or 3 hundred.’*{ In describing the country bordering 
the Illinois River below the junction of the Kankakee, he says, ‘‘In 
this Route we see only vast Meadows, with little Clusters of trees here 
and there, which seem to have been planted by Hand; the Grass grows 
so high in them, that one might loose ones self amongst it; but every- 
where we meet with Paths that are as beaten as they can be in the 
most populous Countries; yet nothing passes through them but Buf- 
faloes, and from Time to Time some Herds of Deer and some Roe- 
Bucks. . . . The 6th [October, 1721] we saw a great Number of 
Buffaloes crossing the River in a great Hurry.” } 
Vaudreuil describes the abundance of these animals in the vicinity 
of the Rock River in 1718. From the bluffs along the river, he 
* Parkman, Discovery of the Great West, Boston, 1869, p. 204. 
+ Kip, W. I. Early Jesuit Missions in North America, N. Y., 1846. 
t Letters, Goadby’s Eng. edit., 1763, pp. 280 and 290. (Copied from J. A. Allen’s 
History American Bison, 1877, p. 501.) 
