108 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



as Texas and Mexico. The north-western buffalo ranges 

 are as follow. The bands belonging to the Eed River Range 

 winter on the Little Souris, and south-easterly towards 

 and beyond Devil's Lake, and thence on to Red River 

 and the Shayenne. Here too, they are found in the 

 spring. Their course then lies west towards the Grand 

 Coteau de Missouri, until the month of June, when they 

 turn north, and revisit the Little Souris from the west, 

 winding round the west flank of Turtle Mountain to Devil's 

 Lake, and by the main river (Red River), to the Shay- 

 enne again. In the memory of many Red River hunters, 

 the buffalo were accustomed to visit the prairies of the 

 Assinniboine as far north as Lake Manitobah, where in 

 fact their skulls and bones are now to be seen ; their 

 skulls are also seen on the east side of the Red River of 

 the north, in Minnesota, but the living animal is very 

 rarely to be met with. A few years ago they were 

 accustomed to pass on the east side of Turtle Mountain 

 through the Blue Hills of the Souris, but of late years 

 their wanderings in this direction have ceased ; experi- 

 ence teaching them that their enemies, the half-breeds, 

 have approached too near their haunts in that direction. 



The country about the west side of Turtle Mountain 

 in June 1858 was scored with their tracks at one of the 

 crossing places on the Little Souris, as if deep parallel 

 ruts had been artificially cut down the hill-sides. These 

 ruts, often one foot deep and sixteen inches broad, would 

 converge from the prairie for many miles to a favourite 

 crossing or drinking place ; and they are often seen in 

 regions in which the buffalo is no longer a visitor. 



The great western herds winter between the south and 

 the north branches of the Saskatchewan, south of the 

 Touchwood Hills, and beyond the north Saskatchewan 

 in the valley of the Athabaska ; they cross the South Branch 



