158 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
mountains, the fact of their existence there in great abundance 
is amply settled by the testimony of De Laet, on the authority 
of Gomara, 1. 6., c. 17, and of Purchas, p. 778. Its limits to the 
north are not easier to determine. In Hakluyt’s collection, we 
find in the account of Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s voyages, which 
commenced in 1583, that there are said to be in the Island of 
Newfoundland, * Buttolfles, or a beast, it seemeth by the tract and 
foote, very large in the manner of an Oxe.’ It may, however, 
be questioned, whether these were not Musk Oxen, instead of 
the common Buffalo, or Bison, of our prairies. We have no 
authority of any weight which warrants us in admitting that the 
Buffalo existed north of Lakes Ontario, Erie, &c., and east of 
Lake Superior. From what we know of the country between 
Nelson’s River, Hudson’s Bay, and the lower lakes, including 
New South Wales and Upper Canada, we are inclined to 
believe the Buffalo never abounded there, if indeed any were 
ever found north of the lakes. But west of Lake Winnepeck, 
we know that they are found as far north as the 62d degree of 
north latitude. Captain Franklin’s party killed one on Salt 
River, about the 60th degree. Probably they are found all 
over the prairies, which are bounded on the north by a line, 
commencing at the point at which the 62d degree meets the 
base of the Rocky Mountains, and running in a south-easterly 
direction, to the southern extremity of Lake Winnepeck, which 
is very little north of the 50th degree. On the Saskatchewan, 
Buffalo are very abundant. It may be proper to mention here, 
that the small white Buffalo, of which Mackenzie makes fre¬ 
quent mention, on the authority of the Indians, who told him 
that they lived in the mountains, is probably not the Bison ; 
for Lewis and Clarke inform us, that the Indians designated by 
that name the Mountain Sheep. It is probable that west of the 
Rocky Mountains, the Buffalo does not extend far north of the 
Columbia. At present it is scarcely seen east of the Missis¬ 
sippi, and south of the St. Lawrence. Governor Cass’s party 
found, in 1819, Buffalo on the east side of the Mississippi, 
