138 
ZOOLOGY. 
BOS AMERICANUS, Gmelin. 
American Buffalo; Bison. 
Baird, Gen. If ep., Mammals, 682. 
The American Buffalo. —Jedediah S. Smith says that prior to 1830 the most western limit of 
this animal was at the head of the river Malade, (a branch of Snake river,) heading in the 
Salmon River mountains. Angus McDonald, esq., of the Hudson Bay Company, tells me 
that he found a buffalo skull in the canon of Snake river, at the foot of the Great Shoshonee 
Falls, eight miles above Rock creek. Wilkes, or Fremont, gives the Pont Neuf as their 
boundary in 1841. In 1845 they left the valley of Bear river, and I doubt whether they now 
cross Green river, or even come through the South Pass. Formerly, it is said, they were quite 
plentiful in the British possessions tvtst of the Rocky mountains. I was told in 1853, by an 
old Iroquis hunter, that a lost bull had been killed twenty-five years before in the Grand 
Coulee; but this was an extraordinary occurrence, perhaps before unknown.—G. 
The only buffalo that I have heard of which has been killed within late years north of the 
South Pass and west of the Rocky mountains was a “lost” bull, which was seen and killed at 
Horse Plain, at the junction of the Flathead and Hell Gate rivers, on the day I passed it on 
my canoe voyage in November, 1853. The Indians were in great glee, saying “The buffalo 
are coming hack among us!” a hope in which, it is needless to say, they have been disappointed. 
Their remark, however, would indicate that these animals formerly were abundant in the 
valleys on the headwaters of Clark’s Fork of the Columbia.—S. 
ANIMALS INTRODUCED INTO OREGON AND WASHINGTON TERRITORIES. 
Horned Cattle. 
Horned cattle of the wild Spanish variety were introduced into Oregon from California a 
few years ago by the Hudson Bay Company. Having increased rapidly, in 1850 there were 
about 4,000 head on the Nisqually plains. Although private property they have become 
so wild that they have to be hunted and killed on horseback, like buffalo. Owing to the 
rapid settlement of the country and to other causes, these wild cattle are now (1855) 
becoming rapidly exterminated. The jargon word for cattle is Moos-moos, and is a corruption 
of Moos vioos-chin, the Walla-Walla word for buffalo. —G. 
The California cattle are now done away with to a great extent in both our northwestern 
Territories, having given place to the better breed of domestic stock which have been driven 
across from the valley of the Mississippi. It is said that a cross between the two kinds adds 
great hardiness to the stock, and that a dash—say one-fourth or one-eighth—of the Spanish 
blood is really an improvement to the breed.—S. 
The Horse. 
The Yakimas (living north of the Columbia) say that they first obtained the horse from the 
Flatheads. The latter probably got them from the Snakes, who, in their turn, probably obtained 
them from the Comanches. Garry, the Spokane chief, cannot say how long it is since his tribe 
got them. Lewis and Clark’s description of the standard of the Oregon horse is far superior 
to that of the present stock. It is probable that they have much deteriorated by promiscuous 
breeding, and by the introduction of the white horse. 
