310 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



We have nevertheless too many proofs to admit a doubt of their 

 existing, and in considerable numbers, on the mountains near the 

 coast." 



This account was written while our American travellers wintered 

 on the Pacific. But on their return up the Columbia, at Brant island, 

 an Indian " offered two sheep skins for sale : one, which was the skin 

 of a full grown sheep, was as large as that of a Common Deer ; the 

 second was smaller, and the head part, with the horns remaining, 

 was made into a cap, and highly prized as an ornament by the owner. 

 The horns of the animal were black, smooth and erect, and they rise 

 from the middle ol the forehead, a little above the eyes, in a cylindri- 

 cal form, to the height of four inches, where they are pointed. The 

 Clahelellahs informed us that the Sheep are very abundant on the 

 heights, and among the cliffs of the adjacent mountains ; and that 

 these two had been lately killed out of a herd of thirty-six, at no great 

 distance from the village."* 



"The Indians assert, that there are great numbers of the White 

 Buffaloe or Mountain Sheep, on the snowy heights of the mountains, 

 west of Clark's river. They generally inhabit the rocky and most 

 inaccessible parts of the mountain, but as they are not fleet, are easily 

 killed by the hunters."f 



The Bison, commonly called the Buffaloe, has short, black, rounded 

 horns, with a great space between their bases ; on the shoulders there 

 is a gibbosity or bunch, composed of a fleshy substance; the fore part 

 of the body is thick and strong; the hind part slender and weak; the 

 tail is about a foot long, and naked to the end, which is tufted ; legs 

 short and thick. 



The head and shoulders of the Bull are covered with long flocks 

 of reddish woolly hair, falling over the eyes and horns, leaving only 

 the points of the latter to be seen ; on the chin, and along the dew- 

 laps, there is a great length of shaggy hairs ; the rest of the body 

 during Summer is naked, in the Winter it is clothed equally in all 

 parts. The Cow is less, and wants the shaggy coat, which gives the 

 Bull so tremendous an aspect. 



Lawson says that the Buffaloe grows to the weight of sixteen hun- 

 dred, or two thousand four hundred pounds 4 But we think that 

 there must be an error in this statement, as some of our late travel- 

 lers represent it as weighing, when full grown, about one thousand 

 pounds. 



The European naturalists have been at considerable pains to ascer- 

 tain the route by which these animals migrated from the Old to the 

 New World ; as it seems they are very unwilling to consider that 

 the Creator has been as bountiful to the Americans, in the primeval 

 distribution of his gifts, as He has been to the favoured of the ancient 

 dominions. 



"It is difficult to say," says Pennant, "in what manner these ani- 

 mals migrated originally from the old to the new world ; it is most 

 likely it was from the north of Asia, which in very ancient times might 

 have been stocked with them to its most extreme parts, notwithstand- 

 ing they are now extinct. At that period there is a probability that 

 the old and the new Continents might have been united in the naf- 



* History of the Expedition, vol. ii, p. 233. 



f Idem, p. 331. — See also page 49 of the same volume. 



t A voyage to Carolina, by John Lawson, p. 116. 



