38-i REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887 



Oregon. — The oriiy evidence on record ot tbe occurrence of the bison 

 in Oregon is the following, from Professor Allen's memoir (p. 119): 

 "Respecting its former occurrence in eastern Oregon, Prof. O. C. Marsh, 

 under date of New Haven, February 7, 1875, writes me as follows: 'The 

 most western point at which I have myself observed remains of the 

 buffalo was in 18'i on Willow Creek, eastern Oregon, among the foot 

 hills on the eastern le of the Blue Mountains. This is about latitude 

 44°. The bones were erfectly characteristic, although nearly decom- 

 posed.' " 



The remains must } k been those of a solitary and very enterpris 

 ing straggler. 



The Northwest territories (British). — At two or three points 

 only did the buf .oes of the British Possessions cross the Eocky 

 Mountain barrier toward British Columbia. One was the pass through 

 which the Canadian Pacific Railway now runs, 200 miles north of the 

 international boundary. According to Dr. Richardson, the number of 

 buffaloes which crossed the mountains at that point were sufficiently 

 noticeable to constitute a feature of the fauna on the western side of 

 the range. It is said that buffaloes also crossed by way of the Koote- 

 nai Pass, which is only a few miles north of the boundary line, but the 

 number which did so must have been very small. 



As might be expected from the character of the country, the favorite 

 range of the bison iu British America was the northern extension of 

 the great pasture region lyiug between the Missouri River and Great 

 Slave Lake. The most northerly occurrence of the bison is recorded as 

 an observation of Franklin in 1820 at Slave Point, on the north side of 

 Great Slave Lake. "A few frequent Slave Point, on the north side of 

 the lake, but this is the most northern situation in which they were 

 observed by Captain Franklin's party." * 



Dr. Richardson defined the eastern boundary of the bison's range 

 in British America as follows : " They do not frequent any of the dis- 

 tricts formed of primitive rocks, and the limits of their range to the east- 

 ward, within the Hudson's Bay Company's territories, may be correctly 

 marked on the map by a line commencing in longitude 97°, on the Red 

 River, which flows into the south end of Lake Winnipeg, crossing the 

 Saskatchewan to the westward of the Basquian Hill, and running thence 

 by the Athapescow to the east end of Great Slave Lake. Their migra- 

 tions westward were formerly limited to the Rocky Mountain range, and 

 they are still unknown in New Caledonia and on the shores of the Pa- 

 cific to the north of the Columbia River ; but of late years they have 

 found out a passage across the mountains near the sources of the Sas- 

 katchewan, and their numbers to the westward are annually increasing^ 



Great Slave Lake. — That the buffalo inhabited the southern shore of 

 this lake as late as 1871 is well established by the following letter from 



* Sabine, Zoological Appendix to " Franklin's Journey," p. 668. 

 t Fauna Boreali-Araericana, vol. 1, p. 279-280. 



