WESTERN WILD SPORTS. 
157 
Lower Louisiana. We know, however, of one author, Bernard 
Romans, who wrote in 1774, and who speaks of the Buffalo as 
a benefit of nature bestowed upon Florida. There can be no 
doubt that the animal approached the Gulf of Mexico, near the 
Bay of St. Bernard; for Alvar Nunez, about the year 1535, 
saw them not far from the coast; and Joater, one hundred and 
fifty years afterwards, saw them at the Bay of St. Bernard. It 
is probable that this bay is the lowest point of latitude at which 
this animal has been found, east of the Rocky Mountains. 
There can be no doubt of their existence west of those moun¬ 
tains, though Father Venegas does not include them among the 
animals of California; and although they were not seen west 
of the mountains by Lewis and Clark, nor mentioned by Har¬ 
mon and Mackenzie, as existing in New California, a country 
of immense extent, which is included between the Pacific Ocean, 
the Rocky Mountains, the territory of the United States, and 
the Russian possessions on the north-west coast of America, yet 
their existence at present on the Columbia appears to be well 
ascertained ; and we are told that there is a tradition among the 
natives, that shortly before the visit of our enterprising ex¬ 
plorers, destructive fires had raged over the prairies, and driven 
the Buffaloes east of the mountains. Mr. Dougherty, the very 
able and intelligent sub-agent, who accompanied the expedition 
to the Rocky Mountains, and who communicated so much 
valuable matter to Mr. Say, asserted that he had seen a few of 
them in the mountains, but not west of them. It is highly pro¬ 
bable that the Buffalo ranged on the western side of the Rocky 
Mountains, to as low a latitude as on the eastern side. De Laet 
says, on the authority of Henera, that they grazed as far south 
as the banks of the river Yaquimi. In the same chapter this 
author states, that Martin Perez had, in 1591, estimated the 
Province of Cinaloa, in which this river runs, to be three hun¬ 
dred leagues from the City of Mexico. 
“ Although we may not be able to determine with precision, 
the southern limits of the roamings of the Buffalo west of the 
