DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIM 
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
F. V. HAYDEN, U. S. Geologist-in-Charge. 
HISTORY 
OF THE 
AMERICAN BISON, 
BISON AMEBICANUS. 
BY 
JOEL ASAPH ALLEN. 
[EXTRACTED FROM THE NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
SURVEY, FOR THE YEAR 1875.] 
WASHINGTON: 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
/ June, 1877. DEPARTMENT OF TOE INTERIOR; 
TTJXTITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
F. V. HAYDEN, U. S. Geologist-in-Charge. 
HISTORY 
OE THE 
AMERICAN BISON 
BISON AMERICANS. 
BY 
JOEL ASAPH ALLEN. 
[EXTRACTED FROM THE NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
SURVEY, FOR THE YEAR 1875.] 
WASHINGTON: 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
June, 1877. HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BISON, 
BISON AMERICANUS. 
J. A. Allen. 
EDITORIAL PREFACE. 
Office United States Geological and Geo- 
graphical Survey of the Territories, 
Washington, April 30, 1877. 
The great interest which attaches to the history of the American 
Bison renders the publication of the present article desirable, as the 
edition of the original memoir was too small to supply the very general 
demand for a work of such magnitude and importance as Mr. Allen's 
'•The American Bisons, Living and Extinct." 
By the kind permission of Prof. N. S. Shaler, Director of the Kentucky 
Geological Survey, the work is republished in the present connection, 
with the modifications noted beyond. 
It being scarcely practicable to reproduce the memoir in full, it has 
been deemed advisable to restrict the scope of this reprint to the portion 
treating of the living species, as being of the most general interest. 
Such subtraction of the portion relating to the extinct species, and omis- 
sion of the illustrations, brings the body of the memoir within the 
reasonable limits of the present volume. 
The editorship of the memoir in its new form having devolved upon 
me, it becomes expedient to state the modifications which I have intro- 
duced upon consultation with the author, and with his full concurrence. 
The memoir as originally published has the following titles: 
Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Kentucky. | A. S. Shaler, Director. | Fol. I. Part 
II. | - | 'f]ie American Bisons, | living and extinct. | By J. A. Allen. | With twelve plates 
and map. | - | University press, Cambridge: | Welch, Bigelow, f Co. | 1876. 
Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, | at Harvard College, Cambridge, 
Mass. I Pol. IV. No. 10. | - | The American Bisons, | living and extinct. | By J. A. 
Allen. I Published by permission of N. S. Shaler, Director of the Kentucky | Geological Sur- 
vey. | With twelve plates and a map. | University press, Cambridge: | Welch, Bigelow, 
Co. | 1876. 
Ato.pp. i-ix, 1-246, 1 cold map, 12 pll., 13 Z? explanatory, 2 wood cuts in text. 
These two publications were simultaneous, and only differ in the titles. 
The following are the contents of the memoir:- 
Title, p. i. 
Preliminary Note (N. S. Shaler). p. iii. 
Introduction, pp. v-ix. 
Part I. 
1. -Distinctive Characteristics and Affinities of the Bisons. pp. 1-3. 
2. -General historical Account of the Remains of Extinct Bisons hitherto found in 
North America, pp. 3-7. 
3. -Description of the Extinct Species, pp. 7-31. 
443 444 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
4. -Geographical Distribution and Geological Position of the Remains of the Extinct 
Bisons of North America, pp. 32-35. 
5. -Relation of the Existing Species of Bisons to the Extinct Species, pp. 35, 36. 
6. -Description of the Existing Species, pp. 36-70. 
Part II. 
1. -Geographical Distribution, past and present, of Bison americanus. pp. 71-191. 
2. -Products of the Buffalo, pp. 191-201. 
3. -The Chase, pp. 202-215. 
4. -Domestication of the Buffalo, pp. 215-221. 
Appendix I. pp. 223-231. 
Appendix II. (N. S. Shaler). pp. 232-236. 
Index, pp. 237-246. 
Map ana t welve plates, each with unpaged explanatory leaf. 
The changes made in the present republication are substantially as 
1 fllows:- 
1. The omission of the illustrations, explanatory pages, and textual 
references. 
2. The omission of the portion relating to the extinct species, the 
present reprint being confined to the one existing species, beginning at 
p. 3G of the original. 
3. The incorporation of the appendices in the body of the text. 
4. The addition of much new matter by the author himself. 
5. Various minor modifications, with the slight alteration, chiefly 
verbal, of context incident thereto. 
G. Alteration of the title to suit the republication, and substitution of 
editorial preface for the preliminary matter of the original. 
No editorial abridgment or digest of any part of the memoir has been 
deemed advisable, the portions of the memoir here reproduced being 
printed exactly according to the copy furnished by the author, who has, 
as already said, added much new matter and made some little changes, 
passim, in the context. A few editorial notes, chiefly explanatory of 
modifications of the text are introduced, always in brackets. 
lu its present form, and with the wide circulation now given, it is 
believed that the memoir will satisfy the desire long felt by the public 
to possess a complete and thoroughly reliable history of the most con- 
spicuous and most important quadruped of America, prepared with the 
greatest care and pains, after protracted and patient research, by one of 
the most eminent therologists of the country. 
ELLIOTT COUES, 
Secretary of the Survey. pai.t i 
DESCRIPTIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL. 
BISON AMERICANUS (Gmelin) Smith. 
American Bison or Buffalo. 
Bos americanus Gmelin, Syst. Nat., I, 204,1788.-Desmarest, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., 
Ill, 531, 1816; Mammalogie, 496, pl. xliv, 1820.-Harlan, Fauna Amer., 268, 
1825.-Godman, Amer. Nat. Hist., Ill, 4,1826.-Desmoulin, Diet. Class. Hist. 
Nat., II, 365, 1822.- Richardson, Fauna Bor. Amer., I, 279, 1829.-Fischer, 
Synop. Main., 495, 653, 1829.-Cooper, Month. Am. Journ. Geol. & Nat. Hist., 
1831,44,174,207 (remains at Big-bone Lick, Ky.); Amer. Journ. Sei., NX, 371, 
1831 ; Edinb. New Phil. Journ., XI, 353, 1831.-Doughty, Cab. Nat. Hist., II. 
169, pl. xiv, 1832.-Sabine, Franklin's Journey, 668,1833.-Wagner, Schreber's 
Saugt.,V, 472, 1855.-Giebel, Saugt., 271, 1855.-Baird, Mam. N. Amer., 682, 
1857 ; U. S. & Mex. Bound. Survey, Pt. II, 52, 1859.-Newberry, Pacif. R. R. 
Expl. & Surveys, VI, iv, 72,1857.-Suckley & Gibbs, Ibid., XII, ii, 138,1860.- 
Xantus, Zool. Garten, 1,109.-Allen, Proc. Bost.Soc. Nat. Hist.,XIII, 186,1869; 
XVII, 39,1874. 
Bison americanus Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolina, II, App., 20, xxviii, 1743.-Brisson, Reg. 
Anim., Quad., 1756.- Smith, Griffith's Cuv., V, 374,1827.- De Kay, Nat. Hist. 
New York Zool., Pt. 1,110, 1842.-Sundevall, Kong. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl, for 
1844, 203, 1846.-Gray, Kuowsley's Menag., 49,1850; Cat. Mam. Brit. Mus., Pt. 
HI, 39, 1852; Hand-List of Edentate, Thick-Skinned & Ruminant Mam., 85, 
1873.-Gerrard, Cat. Bones of Mam. Brit. Mus., 230,1862.-Turner, Proc. Zool. 
Soc. London, XVIII, 177,1850.-Audubon & Bachman, Quad. N. Amer., II, 32, 
pls. Ivi, Ivii, 1851.-Baird, Rep. U. S. Pat. Off., Agricult., 1851,124 (plate), 1852.- 
Leidy, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1854, 200, 210; Extinct Mam. Faun. N. 
Amer., 371,1869.-Allen, Bull. Essex Institute, VI, 46, 54, 59, 63, 1874.-RCti- 
meyer, Verhandl. Naturf. Gesells. in Berlin, IV, iii, 1865 ; Versuch eiuer natiir- 
lichen Geschichte des Rindes, II, 58. 
Bos bison Syst. Nat., I, 99, 1766.-Kalm, Travels in N. Amer. (Forster's 
Transl.),I,297. 
Bos bison Schintz, Synop. Mam., 482,1845 (in part only). 
•'Bos urus var. Bodd , Elen. Anim., 1784." 
Bos bonasus Brandt, Zoogeographische und Palmontologische Beitriige, 105, 1867 (in 
part only).-Lilljeborg, Fauna bfvers Sveriges och Norges Ryggrad., I, 877, 
1874 (in part only). 
Taurus mexicanus Hernandez, Mexico, 587. 
Taurus r/aiTirensis Nieremb., Hist. Nat., 181,182. 
Le Bison [d'Amfrique], Buffon, Hist. Nat., XI, 284. Suppl. HI, pl. v.-F. Cuvier & 
Geoffroy, Hist. Nat. des Mam., I, livr. xii, 1819; II, livr. xxxii; HI, livr. xliv.- 
G. Cuvier, Reg. Anim., 1,170,1817 ; Oss. Foss., 3d Ed., IV, 117,1825. 
American Bison, Agassiz, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XI, 316,1867. 
Buffalo, Cooper, Month. Am. Journ. Geol., 1831, 174, 207 (remains at Big-bone Lick).- 
Knight, Amer. Journ. Sci., XXVII, 166, 1835 (remains at Big-bone Lick).- 
Lyell, Proc. Geol. Soc. London, IV, 36, 1843 (remains at Big-bone Lick). 
Description.-Au adult measures about nine feet (two aud three 
fourths metres) from the muzzle to the iusertiou of the tail, and thir- 
teen aud a half feet (about four aud one sixth metres) to the end of the 
tail, including the hairs, which extend about fifteen inches beyond the 
445 446 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
vertebrae. The female measures about six and a half feet (about two 
metres) from the muzzle to the insertion of the tail, and about seven 
feet (two and one sixth metres) to the end of the tail, including the 
hairs, which extend about ten inches beyond the vertebrae. The height 
of the male at the highest part of the hump is about five and a half to 
six feet (about two metres); of the female at the same point about five 
feet (about one and a half metres). The height of the male at the hips 
is about four and two-thirds feet (nearly one and a half metres); of the 
female at the same point about four and a half feet (about one and a 
third metres). Audubon states the weight of old males to be nearly 
two thousand pounds, that of the full-grown fat females to be about 
twelve hundred pounds. 
The horns of the males are short, very thick at the base, and rapidly 
taper to a shari> point, which in old individuals becomes worn off' on the 
lower side, and the end is often shortened by the same process and occa- 
sionally much splintered. Their direction is outward and upward, finally 
curving inward. The horns of the females are much smaller at the base 
but nearly as long as in the males, but they taper very gradually, and are 
hence much slenderer, and are rather more incurved at the tips, where 
they are rarely abraded as in the males. The hoofs are short and broad, 
those of the fore feet abruptly rounded at the end; those of the hind 
feet are much narrower and more pointed. The muffle is broad and 
naked, having much the same form as in the domestic ox. The short 
tail has the long hairs restricted to a tuft at the end. 
In winter the head, neck, legs, tail, and whole under parts, are black- 
ish-brown ; the upper surface of the body lighter. The color above 
becomes gradually lighter towards spring ; the new short hair in autumn 
is soft dark umber or liver-brown. In very old individuals the long 
woolly hair over the shoulders bleaches to a light yellowish-brown. 
Young animals are generally wholly dark brown, darkest about the 
head, on the lower surface of the body, and on the limbs. The young 
calf is at first nearly uniform light chestnut-brown, or yellowish-brown, 
with scattered darker hairs on the belly, where are also occasionally small 
patches of white. Toward autumn the light yellowish color is replaced 
by the darker brown that characterizes the older animals. After the 
first few months the younger animals are darker than they are later in 
life, at middle age the coat, especially over the shoulders, becoming 
lighter and presenting a bleached or faded appearance, which increases 
with age. The horns, hoofs, and muffle are black, the hoofs being 
sometimes edged or striped with whitish. There are no important sex- 
ual differences in color. 
The woolly hair over the shoulders is much longer and more shaggy 
than elsewhere on the body ; it increases in length on the neck above, 
gradually losing its woolly character, and between the horns attains a 
length of ten to fourteen inches, nearly concealing the ears and the 
bases of the horns, and often partly covers the eyes. The long hair ad- 
vances also on the face, where it decreases in length and becomes more 
woolly again, extending far forward in a pointed area nearly to the 
nose. The chin and throat are also covered with long hair, which under 
the chin forms an immense beard, eight or ten inches to a foot or more 
in length. Thick masses of long hair also arise from the inner and pos- 
terior surfaces of the upper part of the fore legs, where the hair often 
attains a length of six or eight inches. A strip of long hair also extends 
along the crest of the back nearly to the tail. The tail is covered 
with only short soft hair till near the tip, from which arises a tuft of 
coarse long hair twelve to eighteen inches in length. The hinder and 447 
ALLEN.] 
DESCRIPTION OF THE BISON. 
lower portions of the body and legs are covered with short soft woolly 
hair. This is moulted early in spring, after which for a few weeks the 
hinder portions of the animal are quite or nearly naked. The shoul- 
ders retain permanently the long shaggy covering, which with the long 
hair of the neck and head gives them, especially during the moulting 
season, a singularly formidable aspect. 
The female, as already stated, is much smaller than the male, with a 
less elevated hump, much smaller, slenderer, and more curved horns, 
less heavily developed beard, less shaggy head, etc., but presents no 
essential differences in color. 
Albinism and Melanism.-Pied individuals are occasionally met with, 
but they are of rare occurrence.* I have seen but a single specimen, 
the head of which, finely mounted, is now in the Museum of Compara- 
tive Zoology. I obtained it of hunters at Fort Hays, Kansas, near 
which place it was taken in 1870, where it was regarded as a great curi- 
osity. In this specimen, a female, the whole face, from between the 
horns to the muzzle, is pure white, but in other respects does not differ 
from ordinary examples. White individuals are still more rare, but are 
not unknown. A former agent of the American Fur Company, who 
had had unusually favorable opportunities of judging, informed me that 
they probably occur in the proportion of not more than one in millions, 
he having seen but five in an experience of twenty years, although he 
had met with hundreds of pied ones. Black ones are rather more fre- 
quent, but can only be regarded as very rare. The fur of these is 
usually much softer and finer than that of ordinary individuals, and 
black robes, from this fact and their great rarity, bring a very large 
price. They seem to be more frequent at the northward than elsewhere. 
Varieties.-There are two commonly recognized varieties of the buf- 
falo, known respectively as the wood buffalo and the mountain buffalo. 
The wood buffalo is described by Hindi as larger than the common 
bison of the plains, with very short soft pelage and soft short uncurled 
mane, thus more resembling in these points the Lithuanian bison or 
aurochs. It is said to be very scarce, and to be found only north of the 
Saskatchewan and along the flanks of the Rocky Mountains, and to 
never venture into the plains. A supposed variety of the bison, re- 
ferred to by some of the northern voyagers as occurring north of Great 
Slave Lake, and known only from vague rumors current among the 
natives, is in all probability the musk ox (Ovibos mosckatus). 
The mountain bison, so often referred to by hunters and mountaineers 
as a variety or perhaps a distinct species, seems to agree in all essential 
particulars with the so-called wood bison of the region farther north. 
The same characters of larger size, darker, shorter, and softer pelage, 
are usually attributed to it, but one meets with such different, exagger- 
ated, and contradictory accounts of its distinctive features from differ- 
ent observers, that it is almost impossible to believe in its existence, 
except in the imaginations of the hunter and adventurer. I have found 
that those actually conversant with it, and whose opinions in general 
matters are most entitled to respect, regard it as but slightly or not at 
all different from the bison of the plains. Others who know it only 
from hearsay, and whose notions of it are consequently vague, generally 
magnify its supposed differences, till some do not hesitate to declare 
their belief in it as a specifically distinct animal from the common bison 
of the plains.! Dr. Cooper, speaking of the bisons found formerly in 
* See Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mts., Vol. I, p. 471. 
IHind (H. Y.), Nar. of Canadian Red River Explor. Exped., etc., Vol. II, pp. 106, 
107, 1860. 
t See Bulletin Essex Institute, Vol. VI, p. 55, 1874. 448 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
the mountain valleys about the sources of the Snake River, says he 
" saw no difference in the skulls, indicating a different species, or 
' mountain buffalo' of hunters."* The bisons formerly living in the 
parks and vallcvs of the central portion of the Rocky Mountain chain 
doubtless did often grow to a larger size than those of the plains, with 
rather larger horns, and, being less subjected to the bleaching effects 
of the elements in their partially wooded retreats, would naturally have 
a darker and perhaps softer pelage. The weathered bison skulls I met 
with in 1871 >n the upper part of South Park and in the vicinity of the 
tree-limit in the Snowy Range of Colorado were certainly larger, in the 
average, by actual measurement, than those of the Kansas plains. The 
small Umds now lingering here and there in the mountains, and now 
currently known as the mountain buffalo, may be in part the remnants 
of a former larger mountain form, but certainly a part of them are 
actually recent migrants from the plains. In 1871 I was able to trace 
the migration of a small band up the valley of the South Platte and 
across South Park to the vicinity of the so-called Buffalo Spring, situ- 
ated considerably to the southward of Fairplay. Specimens of the 
" mountain bison'" sent in a fresh state from Colorado to the Smithso- 
nian Institution during the present winter (December, 1875) certainly 
presented no appreciable differences from winter specimens from the 
plains. The mountain race of the bison was apparently a little larger 
than the buffalo of the plains, and doubtless was nearly identical with 
the race known farther northward as the " wood buffalo." Their more 
sheltered and in some other respects somewhat different habitat would 
tend to develop just the differences claimed to distinguish the mountain 
and northern woodland race. 
Castrated buffaloes are said to be occasionally met with where the 
buffaloes are abundant, being castrated when quite young by hunters. 
They are reported to attain an immense size, being so much larger than 
the others as to be conspicuous from their large size. 
Relationship to the Aurochs.-The American bison is a little smaller 
than the aurochs (Bison bonasus), with a much larger chest, a smaller 
and weaker pelvis, a shorter and smaller tail, more shaggy head, and 
heavier beard. The more important differences, as shown by a compari- 
son of the skeletons, consists in the chest (see subjoined measurements, 
Table I) in Bison americanus being absolutely larger than in Bison bo- 
nasus, while the pelvis is very small and weak. The B. americanus is 
hence greatly developed anteriorly, or in the thoracic portion of the 
body, with the pelvic portion disproportionately reduced, while in B. bo- 
nasus just the reverse of this obtains-a small compressed thorax and a 
strong heavy pelvis. This gives the aurochs the appearance of standing 
higher on its legs. The dorsal outline is about equally declined poste- 
riorly in each species, not relatively much more declined in B. ameri- 
canus, as generally stated. Neither does the aurochs possess relatively 
longer hind limbs, as compared with the fore limbs, than B. americanus, 
the proportion being essentially the same in the two, whether the total 
height of the animal be assumed as the basis of comparison, or whether 
the comparison be based on the bones of the limbs alone. 
Comparing, for example, a fine perfect skeleton of a very large old 
male of each species, beautifully and correctly mounted,! the height ot 
'Amer. Nat., Vol. II, p. 538, 1868. 
t These skeletons are Nos. 91 {Bison americanus) and 165 (Bison bonasus) of the 
osteological collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, both of which were 
prepared and mounted in the same manner by the same persons, under the supervision 
of Prof. H. A. Ward, of Rochester, and represent two pieces of bis best osteological 
work, which is justly celebrated for its neatness and accuracy. ALLEN.] 
RELATIONSHIP OF THE BISON TO THE AUROCH. 
449 
the American bison at the highest dorsal spine is found to be sixty six 
inches; at the anterior end of the sacrum, fifty-two inches; which makes 
the proportion between the two measurements as 80 to 100. The height 
of the aurochs at the highest dorsal spine is seventy-three inches; at the 
anterior end of the sacrum, sixty inches; making the proportion between 
the two measurements as 82 to 100. This difference is not greater than 
often occurs between two individuals of the same species. A compar- 
ison of the anterior and posterior limbs gives a similar result. Thus 
the proportionate length of the fore limb (excluding the scapula) to the 
hind limb, in the American bison, is the some as that in the aurochs, 
namely, as 91 to 100. 
While the skeleton of the aurochs is, generally speaking, heavier and 
more massive than that of the American bison, and'considerably larger 
in all its measurements, the ribs are actually much shorter and straighter, 
giving a much smaller thoracic cavity. The length of the first rib in B. 
americanus, for example, is 452 mm.; in B. bonasus, 375 mm.; of the 
third rib in B. americanus, 548; in B. bonasus, 492; of the sixth rib in 
B- americanus, 711; in B. bonasus, 697; of the ninth rib in B. america- 
nus, 910; in B. bonasus, 869; of the twelfth rib in B. americanus, 783; 
in B. bonasus, 750; of the fourteenth rib (osseous portions only), in B. 
americanus, 437; in B. bonasus, 418. The pelvis, on the other hand, is 
fully one fourth larger in all its dimensions, and the bones that enter 
into its composition are far more massive in the aurochs than in the 
American bison. The smaller size of the posterior part of the vertebral 
column in the American bison is also further seen in its diminutive tail 
as compared with that of the aurochs. Among other noticeable skeletal 
differences are the relatively greater length of the dorsal series of the 
vertebrae, and shorter sternum of the American bison. 
While the above-given comparisons are based on a single skeleton of 
each species, the subjoined measurements (see Table I) shows that these 
conclusions are borne out by further material. 
As already noticed (p. 2[*j), the American bison is not distinguished 
from the aurochs by the possession of fifteen pairs of ribs and only four 
lumbar vertebrae, as was formerly supposed, and as has been so often 
stated, the two species having normally the same number of lumbar ver- 
tebrae and the same number of pairs of ribs. Professor Riitimeyert re- 
fers to the greater length of the anterior dorsal spines in Bi son americanus, 
but this difference is evidently not constant, as is shown by the meas- 
urements given in Table I. He also regards the differences in the rel- 
ative length of the different segments of the extremities to each other 
and to the whole height of the animal as affording differences worthy of 
note. He gives a table illustrative of these differences, which I subjoin. 
He says: "Nahm ich die Liirge von Metacarpus und Carpus zusammen 
als Einheit, so verhielten sich dazu die andern Segmente der Extremi- 
tii ten folgendermassen: 
" Carpus-Metacarpus 
Radius (Aussenseite) .. 
Humerus mit Trochanter 
Scapula vorderer Rand ,. 
Metacarpus mit Naviculare 
Tibia aussen 
Bison americanus. 
.... 1. ) 
.... 1. 102 >3.387 (1. ) 
.... 1.285 ) 
.... 1.795 
.... 1. 151 ) 
1 379 \ 3 999 1891 
B. europaeus. 
1. ) 
1.254 >3.697 (1.) 
1.443 ) 
1.843 
1.0984 
1 5HK S.4 489 fl 914 V" 
Femur mit Trochanter 
.... 1.4691 
1. 803 i 
Taking the same method of comparison with five specimens of R. amcri- 
canus and two specimens of B. bonasus (=europceus) as a basis, gives 
("Of the original edition.-Ed.] 
t Versuch einer natiirlichen Geschichte des Rindes, etc., Part II, p. 68. 
29 g s 450 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
proportions not differing essentially from Riitimeyer's, though the figures 
range ten to fifteen per cent, larger, being probably based on larger spec- 
imens. 
Carpus and Metacarpus 
.... 1. ) 
1. ■) 
Radius 
.... 1.260 >3. C80 (1.) 
1.327 >3.901 (1.) 
Humerus (with Trochanter) 
.... 1.420 J 
1. 574 J 
Scapula 
.... 1.940 
1.836 
Metacarpus 
.... 1.400'| 
.... 1.680 > 4.800 (1.130) 
1.364) 
Tibia 
1.727 > 4.834 (1.155) 
Temur (with Trochanter) 
.... 1.720J 
1.743 J 
The differences between the two species in these proportions are very 
slight, scarcely greater in fact than occur between different individuals 
of Bison americanus. 
Dr. J. E. Gray placed the aurochs and American bison in different 
sections of the genus Bison, the first of which, containing the aurochs, 
is characterized as having the "tarsi elongate, fore and bind quarters 
subequal," and the other, containing the American bison, as having the 
" tarsi short, hinder quarters very low." In the description of the au- 
rochs he says again, " fore and. hind legs subequal; tarsi elongate," con- 
trasting it with "tarsus short, hinder quarters very low," in his diagno- 
sis of Bison americanus. The difference in height between the fore and 
hindquarters of the aurochs and American bison is, as already shown, 
more apparent than real, owing to the greater size of the pelvic region 
in the aurochs. The difference in the relative length of the tarsus is 
also much less than one might infer from Dr. Gray's diagnosis. 
In Bison americanus the proportional length of the metatarsal bone to 
the length of the femur and tibia taken together is (in five specimens) 
as 29-31 to 100; in Bison bonasus (two specimens), as 28 to 100, show- 
ing an actual slightly greater length of the metatarsal segment in Bison 
americanus. The length of the carpus and metacarpus in B. americanus 
(same specimens) to the length of tarsus and metatarsus is as 74 to 100 ; 
in Bison bonasus, as 73 to 100. The length of the upper portion of the 
fore limb (humerus and radius) to the upper portions of the hind limb 
(femur and tibia) in B. americamis (same specimens as before) is as 
75-83 to 100; in B. bonasus, as 80-84 to 100. These proportions coin- 
cide with those obtained from comparing the entire fore and hind limbs 
with each other, as well as the relative height of the animal at the 
shoulder and hip (as previously given); and show a slightly greater av- 
erage relative length of the hind limb i.n B. bonasus as compared with 
B. americanus. The differences, however, are really much less than 
different individuals of either species present when compared with each 
other. 
Table !.[*]-Measurements of Skeletons of Bison americanus and Bison bonasus. 
Bison americanus. 
Bison bonasus. 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
S 
9 
rf 
rf 
rf 
rf 
? 
9 
rf- 
rf 
rf 
Whole length of skeleton (including skull) 
3338 
2980 
2916 
2920 
3120 
2789 
3375 
3416 
Length of skull 
527 
530 
565 
510 
500 
422 
580 
565 
569 
Length ot cervical vertebra) 
527 
470 
430 
480 
520 
457 
590 
538 
? 433 
Lengt h of dorsal vertebrae 
1150 
950 
900 
880 
1000 
868 
940 
985 
..... 
Length of lumbar vertebrae 
407 
340 
330 
380 
370 
357 
390 
400 
. . . . . 
Length of sacral 
254 
190 
210 
250 
245 
228 
315 
293 
..... 
Length of caudal 
47G 
500 
480 
420 
485 
457 
560 
635 
Length of first rib 
452 
350 
380 
287 
345 
375 
Length of first rib, osseous portion, along external 
335 
curvature 
414 
300 
330 
300 
320 
274 
305 
..... 
[* Table IX of the original.-Ed.] ALLEN.] 
RELATIONSHIP OF THE BISON TO THE AUROCH. 
451 
Table I.-Measurements of Skeletons of Bison americanus and Bison bonasus-Continued. 
Bison americanus. 
Bison bonasus. 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
s 
1 
9 
rf 
ri" 
rf 
cf 
? 
? 
cf 
cf 
cf 
38 
50 
50 
31 
40 
39 
Length of first rib, cartilaginous portion .... 
54b1 
510 
450 
479 
492 
Length of third rib, osseous portion 
4j9 
385 
420 
390 
430 
361 
386 
418 
Length of third rib, cartilaginous portion 
115 
90 
88 
91 
Length <»f sixth rib 
111 
700 
6.12 
640 
Length of sixth rih nssenns portion .. _............... 
560 
550 
5S0 
503 
525 
559 
Length of sixth rib cart.-laginons portion 
154 
140 
122 
115 
140 
Length of ninth rib 
9'0 
780 
785 
869 
910 
... 
Length of ninth rib, osseous portion 
670 
630 
680 
635 
680 
584 
600 
660 
I en gth of ninth ri b car til a <*innns portion ...... 
210 
240 
198 
185 
210 
783 
820 
745 
730 
750 
Length of twelfth rib nssenns portion 
540 
580 
500 
57o 
610 
532 
540 
530 
L'*n,rthf'f twelfth rih cartilaginous portion 
243 
230 
215 
190 
220 
593 
585 
693 
710 
Length of fourteenth rib, osseous portion 
437 
420 
5'0 
450 
460 
3SI6 
420 
418 
... 
254 
190 
197 
165 
Length of fouiteenth lib, cartilaginous portion........ 
Length of sternum .. 
469 
490 
480 
490 
475 
463 
510 
53.1 
Len,rth of spine nf sixth cervical ..................... 
114 
110 
150 
90 
103 
76 
ItO 
120 
90 
Len<rth of spi DC nf sfivfinth cervical .................. 
305 
260 
370 
330 
347 
244 
395 
287 
266 
Length of spine of first dorsal 
468 
470 
475 
445 
453 
310 
395 
470 
423 
Length of spine of second dorsal ................ 
477 
485 
465 
430 
440 
342 
4,0 
496 
440 
Len,rth of spine of third dorsal .................. 
445 
•435 
430 
400 
406 
317 
*>93 
470 
435 
Length of spine of fourth dorsal 
400 
420 
390 
3C0 
370 
305 
370 
437 
410 
Length of spirm of tifth dorsal. ...................... 
348 
390 
350 
320 
335 
287 
330 
397 
371 
Length of spine nt* si xt.h dorsal . . .............. 
350 
355 
315 
290 
300 
248 
300 
363 
343 
Len,rth of spine of seventh dorsal .................... 
315 
310 
290 
260 
265 
244 
275 
325 
300 
Length of spine of eighth dorsal 
Length of spirm nf ninth dorsal ................. 
284 
285 
260 
235 
250 
223 
240 
29; 
290 
940 
245 
225 
210 
213 
197 
210 
267 
247 
Length of spine of tenth dorsal 
Length of spine of eleventh dorsal 
Length of spine of twelfth dorsal 
I cd "th of spine of thirteenth dorsal .............. 
210 
210 
200 
180 
185 
170 
170 
217 
228 
173 
185 
165 
155 
IGO 
153 
155 
185 
If 0 
146 
155 
140 
130 
135 
128 
145 
146 
154 
120 
120 
120 
110 
118 
116 
125 
134 
Length of spin® of fourteenth dorsal.. 
108 
100 
110 
100 
106 
101 
90 
127 
127 
Distance between ends of pleurapophyses of first lumbar 
Distance between ends of pleurapophyses of second 
227 
310 
280 
230 
300 
230 
268 
276 
258 
279 
325 
297 
348 
1 ii mhnr _. 
310 
335 
305 
314 
296 
Distancebetween ends of pleurapophyses of third lum- 
345 
293 
345 
363 
375 
356 
J65 
330 
333 
Distance between ends of pleurapophyses of fourth 
365 
340 
350 
315 
367 
387 
1 iimhnr ............ 
360 
373 
381 
Distance between ends of pleurapophyses of fifth lum- 
295 
300 
326 
350 
315 
335 
297 
30!) 
343 
Transverse diameter of proximal end of first sacral... 
240 
24) 
245 
250 
250 
245 
216 
Length of innominate bone 
515 
560 
500 
510 
550 
449 
590 
647 
571 
Greatest (external) width of pelvis anteriorly 
470 
490 
450 
475 
497 
438 
484 
5G0 
Distance between most lateral parts of posterior end 
273 
250 
305 
315 
260 
of pubic hopes 
283 
284 
Length of ilium ............................. 
283 
290 
290 
265 
290 
258 
320 
338 
320 
Length of ischio-pubic bones 
270 
270 
250 
250 
275 
234 
290 
311 
288 
Length nf thyroid foramen 
115 
115 
116 
110 
115 
118 
114 
Breadth nf thyroid foramen . 
63 
70 
73 
70 
74 
76 
65 
Breadth of scapula . . - 
483 
470 
460 
480 
500 
427 
500 
508 
478 
Breadth of scapula, at proximal end 
287 
270 
235 
270 
284 
1 217 
285 
310 
... 
Length of humerus ... .... .................. ........ 
330 
365 
365 
350 
381 
32 i 
395 
433 
-• 
Antero posterior diameter of the proximal end 
158 
142 
145 
' 128 
150 
158 
.... 
Transverse diameter of the proximal end .......... 
128 
117 
130 
113 
120 
134 
Greatest breadth nf its distal end. 
110 
88 
96 
82 
90 
168 
105 
Least ciro.p mforeoce of its shaft ................ ...... 
185 
177 
183 
170 
196 
1 141 
162 
174 
1'0 
T (pn erf.h nf radius ........................... 
313 
315 
320 
310 
320 
i 295 
365 
334 
| 340 
Transverse diameter of proximal end 
ICO 
95 
93 
84 
95 
105 
Transverse diameter of distal end ..... 
94 
88 
88 
71 
96 
90 
Length of ulna 
437 
415 
420 
410 
418 
l 381 
435 
520 
457 
Length of its olecranon 
148 
130 
120 
133 
140 
114 
165 
270 
Least breadth antern-pnsterinrly ...... 
74 
65 
68 
73 
Length of carpus 
53 
50 
55 
50 
62 
36 
60 
51 
195 
Length of canon bone.... 
197 
205 
200 
20J 
204 
190 
220 
218 
Width of proximal end 
78 
72 
75 
<*3 
81 
88 
78 
XV id th of distal end ................ 
80 
76 
83 
62 
71 
76 
74 
Len gt h of inner metatarsal ..................... 
44 
40 
48 
. 36 
43 
70 
62 
Length of first phalanx (fore limb) 
68 
60 
55 
57 
64 
61 
74 
74 
Width of first phalanx proximal end 
43 
39 
43 
I 28 
57 
43 
.... 
XV id th of first phalanx, distal end 
40 
36 
41 
27 
37 
42 
Length of second phalanx - 
40 
40 
40 
35 
38 
40 
43 
44 
Width of second phalanx proximal end _. ......... 
44 
35 
40 
1 3- 
38 
42 
Width nf second phalanx distal end . ........ 
41 
31 
37 
1 31 
34 
35 
Length of ungninal phalanx inner side 
63 
60 
60 
53 
62 
55 
52 
74 
Length of femur - 
431 
425 
430 
420 
400 
1 367 
490 
470 
1 478 452 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Table I.-Measurements of Skeletons of Bison americanus and Bison bonasus-Continued. 
Bison americanus. 
Rison bonasus. 
1 
2 
3 
< 
5 
6 
t 
8 
9 
<f 
? 
? 
cf 
cf 
Greatest diameter of proximal end 
160 
145 
140 
134 
115 
150 
Greatest diameter of distal end 
120 
110 
112 
110 
116 
12.) 
Least circumference of shaft 
158 
150 
160 
142 
145 
132 
165 
177 
Least diameter of shaft 
46 
395 
380 
43 
44 
40 
44 
49 
48 
Length of tibia 
427 
380 
390 
364 
465 
476 
478 
Transverse diameter of proximal end . 
127 
118 
110 
108 
122 
130 
125 
Transverse diameter of distal end 
78 
74 
73 
70 
( 4 
83 
Its least circumference 
148 
140 
144 
128 
160 
1)1 
Length of tarsals in situ (inside) 
101 
90 
90 
10.) 
69 
107 
163 
Length of calcaueum (outside) 
145 
160 
145 
173 
181 
Least circumference of its shaft 
120 
110 
118 
97 
113 
127 
128 
Length of metatarsal 
Transverse (lateral) diameter of proximal end 
250 
243 
..... 
248 
245 
153 
264 
267 
249 
65 
55 
58 
51 
68 
68 
Transverse antero-posterior diameter ot proximal end. 
55 
50 
57 
47 
59 
58 
Transverse (lateral) diameter of distal end 
70 
65 
70 
62 
70 
68 
65 
Transverse antero-posterior diameter of distal end.... 
36 
36 
39 
31 
33 
43 
38 
Least (lateral) diameter of its shaft 
35 
34 
35 
30 
44 
40 
Length of first phalanx (hind limb) 
75 
73 
65 
CO 
66, 
40 
73 
82 
76 
Width transversely of proximal end 
38 
34 
35 
28 
34 
38 
38 
"Width of distal end 
37 
45 
33 
35 
27 
33 
37 
37 
Length of 2d phalanx 
44 
40 
37 
41 
39. 
46 
. 50 
51 
Width of proximal end . 
38 
33 
35 
32 
35 
30 
38 
34 
"W idth of distal end > 
32 
65 
27 
32 
30 
28 
Length of unguinal phalanx, inner side 
63 
80 
55 
66 
57 
62 
70 
55 
Explanation of Table I. 
1. Bison americanus. Male, mounted skeleton (No. 91, Mus. Comp. Zoology), from near Fort Hays, 
Kansas. 
2. Bison americanus. Very old male, unmounted skeleton, the bones mostly ligamentously attached 
(Mus. Comp. Zoology), from hear Fort Hays, Kansas. 
3. Bison americanus. Very old male, unmounted skeleton, the bones mostly ligamentously attached 
(Mus. Comp. Zoology), from near Fort Hays, Kansas. 
4. Bison americanus. Male, disarticulated skeleton (No. 10, Mus. Comp. Zoology), from near Fort 
Hays, Kansas. 
5. Bison americanus. Female, disarticulated skeleton (No. 11, Mus. Comp. Zoology), from near Fort 
Hays, Kansas. 
6. Bison americanus. Female, mounted skeleton (No. 92, Mus. Comp. Zoology), from near Fort 
Hays. Kansas. 
7-. Bison bonasus. Old male, mounted skeleton (No. 165, Mus. Comp. Zoology), from the Menagerie 
of Schreubiunn, received from the Vienna Museum. 
8. Bison bonasus. Young male, mounted skeleton (No. 11,514, National Museum, Washington), from 
the Vienna Museum. 
9. Bison bonasus. Male (meas irements from Kichardson's Zoology of the Voyage of the Herald). 
[Measurements in millimetres.-Eo.] 
The skull of Bison bonasus is rather longer perhaps than that of Bison 
americanus, but the average difference in length is very slight. It would 
be ofteu, in fact, almost impossible to decide absolutely as to whether a 
skull from an unknown locality belonged to one rather than to the other 
of the two species, especially those of young individuals or females. 
Neither the teeth nor the relative size and form of any portion of the 
skull afford any absolutely distinctive characters. The chief difference 
consists in the rather more massive character of the skull in Bison 
bonasus. The close resemblance in all essential features between the 
skulls of the two species is sufficiently iudicated in the subjoined table 
of measurements of a considerable number of skulls of each species. 
The greater prominence and thickness of the orbital cylinder in the 
aurochs has beeu cited by Biitimeyer as a distinctive feature of the 
aurochs, but in a comparison of skulls of corresponding ages the differ- 
ence is not apparent, the slightly greater size and thickness correspond- 
ing merely with the generally more massive character of the osseous 
system of the aurochs. The difference in the nasal bones referred to 
also by the same author is intangible, being equalled iu different indi- 
viduals of Bison americanus. ALLEN.] 
RELATIONSHIP OF THE BISON TO THE AUROCH. 
453 
Bison americanus. 
Bison bouasus. 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
S 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
■' 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
93 
24 
25 
26 
27 
rf 
cf 
cf 
rf 
e? 
rf 
rf 
rf 
rf 
rf 
rf 
cf 
rf 
cf 
cf 
cf 
8 
$ 
? 
? 
? 
? 
? 
cf 
cf 
cf 
cf 
Anterior border of premaxillas to occipital crest 
550 
514 
530 
550 
550 
505 
558 
534 
510 
500 
555 
550 
500 
500 
600 
44k 
420 
450 
496 
48v 
422 
458 
565 
570 
525 
580 
Anterior border of premaxillae to anterior edge of or- 
bits 
280 
290 
290 
275 
273 
273 
250 
270 
270 
267 
265 
275 
270 
250 
250 
323 
240 
220 
240 
253 
255 
260 
230 
290 
305 
305 
Anterior end of nasal bones to occipital crest 
458 
463 
440 
460 
452 
430 
420 
460 
440 
425 
415 
440 
437 
420 
230 
445 
36t 
350 
370 
390 
378 
416 
393 
484 
427 
'250 
440 
Fronto-nasal suture to occipital crest 
247 
267 
263 
240 
232 
230 
270 
230 
2 J i 
214 
240 
215 
230 
255 
200 
190 
198 
210 
208 
216 
208 
285 
257 
265 
Anterior end of nasal bones to base of born-cores 
362 
355 
370 
375 
350 
350 
270 
36" 
355 
340 
350 
355 
360 
343 
365 
310 
30.0 
315 
345 
340 
348 
332 
394 
375 
Bread!h of forehead at narrowest point 1 
270 
273 
270 
285 
254 
27. 
267 
2D 2 
240 
280 
272 
265 
252 
299 
200 
205 
208 
210 
213 
220 
20b 
270 
245 
231 
267 
Distance between extreme outer edge of orbits 
310 
305 
310 
3.3 
345 
298 
295 
333 
320 
280 
290 
330 
332 
335 
323 
338 
251 
230 
236 
267 
260 
240 
230 
310 
328 
310 
312 
Distance between bases of horn-cores 
266 
267 
280 
280 
300 
268 
284 
296 
272 
260 
255 
2r0 
281 
263 
271 
283 
205 
210 
214 
214 
213 
220 
t05 
278 
282 
230 
270 
Width of skull at the auricular openings ... 
240 
267 
250 
272 
270 
238 
220 
273 
253 
227 
238 
277 
267 
260 
260 
280 
174 
186 
190 
220 
214 
203 
193 
254 
258 
240 
245 
Length of horn-cores measured along upper side 
204 
197 
200 
200 
215 
203 
220 
196 
185 
157 
146 
180 
210 
176 
175 
145 
135 
195 
132 
133 
133 
153 
190 
230 
270 
Length of a line connecting base and tip 
190 
163 
195 
200 
178 
175 
176 
173 
130 
132 
162 
178 
161 
170 
12i 
120 
134 
125 
130 
127 
127 
177 
. . . . 
240 
Circumference of base of horn-core 
254 
254 
255 
260 
200 
214 
240 
23;> 
195 
200 
217 
233 
255 
240 
300 
138 
135 
1;>K 
163 
165 
155 
lit 
240 
242 
2C0 
Distance from mesial plane of skull to tip of born-core. 
330 
298 
328 
350 
314 
317 
327 
298 
253 
267 
300 
330 
300 
290 
220 
205 
230 
235 
233 
248 
216 
320 
622 
310 
Distance between extreme tips of horn-cores 
620 
584 
640 
680 
575 
575 
615 
590 
484 
515 
565 
620 
585 
560 
418 
362 
425 
468 
450 
490 
395 
647 
560 
Length of nasals 
201 
194 
195 
194 
210 
205 
192 
187 
197 
187 
200 
195 
193 
lt5 
200 
176 
163 
168 
185 
172 
195 
185 
220 
174 
200 
183 
Greatest breadth of one nasal 
60 
57 
• 65 
55 
53 
58 
53 
57 
5'4 
62 
D,. 
57 
65 
44 
46 
46 
Dk 
46 
49 
38 
52 
52 
.... 
45 
Breadth of palatines opposite second true molar 
108 
110 
100 
103 
104 
97 
112 
104 
80 
93 
102 
96 
106 
98 
113 
89 
88 
90 
88 
92 
102 
8e 
105 
102 
.... 
96 
Greatest height of skull... 
158 
150 
154 
162 
160 
152 
162 
17C 
147 
144 
165 
168 
156 
148 
117 
140 
130 
137 
156 
142 
146 
133 
168 
.... 
167 
Length of molar series of maxilla 
140 
154 
140 
147 
150 
152 
14C 
134 
148 
140 
150 
135 
138 
145 
143 
150 
130 
152 
138 
130 
146 
140 
14e 
142 
152 
Length of lower jaw from tip to angle 
420 
406 
400 
410 
400 
320 
406 
40C 
390 
397 
410 
413 
.... 
416 
365 
360 
382 
380 
385 
369 
433 
385 
.... 
408 
Height of lower jaw from tip to angle 
217 
215 
200 
210 
215 
195 
200 
208 
197 
200 
215 
200 
225 
180 
170 
190 
195 
495 
207 
165 
230 
.... 
203 
Length of molar series of lower jaw 
155 
165 
... 
156 
156 
160 
153 
147 
160 
153 
153 
148 
.... 
146 
158 
147 
145 
155 
153 
158 
157 
.... 
157 
Table !!.[*]-Measurements of twenty-two Skulls of Bison americanus and of five Skulls of Bison bonasus. 
Between orbits and base of born-cores. 
[* Table X of the original.-Ed.] 454 
REPORT UNITED STA'iES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Explanation of Table II. 
1. Bison americanus. A very old male from Kansas (M. C. Z., No. 95). 
2. Bison americanus. Male, ten to twelve years old, from Kansas (M. C. Z., No. 91). 
3. Bison americanus. Very old male, from Kansas. 
4. Bison americanus. Very old male, from Kansas (M. C. Z. No. 93). 
5 Bison americanus. Male, about fifteen years old, from Kansas (M. C. Z., No. 10). 
6. Bison americanus. Male, about six years old, fiom Kansas (M. C. Z.( No. 11). 
7. Bison americanus. Male, about four years old. from Kansas (M. C. Z., No. 94). 
8. Bison americanus. Male, about ten years old, from Kansas (Al. C. Z., No. 97). 
9. Bison americanus. Malo, about twelve yea's old, from Kansas (Al. C. Z., No. 99). 
10. Bison amencanus. Male, four or five years old, from Kansas (M. C. Z., No. 100). 
11. Bison americanus. Male, about six years old, from Kansas (M. C. Z., No. 102). • 
12. Bison americanus. Male, about t welve years old, from Kansas (Al C. Z., No. 1770). 
13. Bison americanus. Male, about twelve years old, from Kansas (Al. C. Z., No. 1771). 
14. Bison americanus. Alale, about twelve years old, from Kansas (M. C. Z., No. 1215). 
15. Bison amer.canus. Male, about fifteen years oul, from Kansas (M. C. Z., No. 1216). 
16. Bison americanus. Male, ten or twelve years old, from Kansas (National Mus., No. 12233). 
17. Bison americanus. Female, four or five years old, from Kansas (Al. C. Z., No. 1937). 
18. Bison americanus. Female, about three years old, from Kansas (Al. C.Z.. No. 1768). 
19. Biso.i americanus. Female, about three years old, from Kansas (M. C. Z., No. 96). 
20. Bison americanus. Female, about nine years old, from Kansas (Al C. Z., No. 101). 
21. Bison americanus. Female, about six years old, from Kansas (Al. C. Z., No. 105). 
22. Bison americanus. Female, about six years old, from Kansas (M. C. Z , No. 92). 
23. Bison bonasus. Female, about five or six years old (M. C. Z.. No. 1790). 
24. Bison bonasus. Old male, from Menagerie of Scbcewbrunn (M. C. Z., No. 165>. 
25. Bison bnnas'/.s. Male. Measurements, as given by Richardson, in Zobl. Voy of theHerald, p. 122. 
26. Bison bonasus. Old male, from Sehcenbrunn. Measurements as given by Cuvier (Ossem. Foss., 
3d ed.. Tome IV, p. 121). 
27. Bison bonasus. Male, about six years old, from the Vienna Museum (National Mus., No. 11514). 
Individual variation.-The American bison piesents a considerable 
range of what may be termed individual variation. This has already 
been noticed in respect to the metacarpal bones, where it was shown 
that not always the thickest and stoutest examples are the longest. 
Thus a metacarpal of a male 192 mm. in length exceeds in all other dimen- 
sions another specimen having a length of 213 mm. A similar difference 
is traceable throughout the skeleton (see Table 1), so that we have 
individuals that present in all parts of their structure a slender or 
attenuated form, and others that are relatively thick and stout, the 
tallest and longest specimens being sometimes exceeded in stoutness, 
comparing bone with bone, by those of considerably less stature. There 
are again individuals that differ from the average in general bulk, with- 
out presenting any other unusual differences. Variations in the rela- 
tive length of the different-bones of the limbs, of the ribs, the dorsal 
spines, etc., are of frequent occurrence. As such variations are now so 
well known to characterize vertebrates in general,-each species having 
a considerable normal range of osteological variation,-they may be 
passed over without further remark. 
Among more unusual variations are the occasional development of an 
extra rib, or an extra pair of ribs, which may articulate either with the 
last cervical or the first lumbar vertebra. A famous instance of the 
latter was presented by a specimen described by Cuvier (the first skele- 
ton of the American bison that came under the eye of an osteologist), 
which had fifteen pairs of ribs, and only four, instead of five, lumbar 
vertebra? [original edition]. The mistake to which this abnormal speci- 
men gave rise in respect to the number of dorsal and lumbar vertebrae 
and the number of pairs of ribs possessed by the American bison as 
compared with the aurochs, has already been noticed,-a mistake that 
still survives in some of our leading text books of comparative anatomy. 
In the Museum of Comparative Zoology is a male from Kansas possess- 
ing a supplemental pair of ribs which articulate with the last cervical 
vertebra, instead of with the first lumbar, as in the case of Cuvier's 
specimen. 
Variations iu the form of the skull are ofte n strikingly apparent, 
affecting not so much, however, the relative size of the different parts, 
or the proportion of width to length, as the frontal outline or profile, ALLEN.] 
INDIVIDUAL VARIATION SYNONYMY. 
455 
and the curvature and relative direction of the horns. In respect to 
the protile, the frontal region varies in different specimens of the same 
sex and of corresponding ages in the forehead being either flat, or even 
slightly concave, or very convex. The horns are usually so much 
depressed that when the skull is placed on a flat surface with the dorsal 
aspect downward the points will not touch the surface on which the 
skull rests,-in other words, do not rise to the plane of the forehead; in 
other specimens they sometimes rise so high as to prevent the skull 
from touching the flat surface by a space of one or two inches. The 
born-cores are also sometimes directed backward far beyond the plane 
of the occiput, though usually not reaching it. Such differences as 
these are so considerable that they are sometimes, in allied groups, 
regarded as indicative of specific differences. 
The variation in length in a series of a dozen aged male skulls ranges 
from 500 to 600 mm., but the usual range of variation is between 500 and 
550 mm. The extremes in breadth are 240 and 280 mm., ranging usually 
between 240 and 275 mm. The lower jaw varies in length in the same 
series from 400 to 420 mm.; the nasals from 194 to 204 mm.; the born-cores 
from 180 to 215 mm. The length of the alveolar space of the upper molars 
varies from 138 to 154 mm.; of the lower, from 148 to 165 mm. The varia- 
tion in the length of the alveolar space in the females overlaps that of 
the males, the length of the lower molar series ranging from 145 to 
158 mm., and that of the upper molar series from 136 to 152 mm. It thus 
appears that in respect to the size of the teeth the sexual difference is 
not very great,-far less than that between other parts of the skull and 
skeleton. 
The individual variation in respect to the horns themselves, in size 
and direction of curvature, is well worthy oi special notice. Of two 
males of nearly corresponding ages, one has horn-cores measuring 220 mm. 
in length, the other only 146 mm. The variation in the circumference at 
the base ranges from 235 to 300 mm. In respect to curvature, the horns 
are sometimes gently curved the whole length, and sometimes abruptly 
bent upward at the end of the basal third. They also vary greatly in size 
in individuals of corresponding ages. The difference in these respects 
between different individuals of Bison americanus is1 hence much greater 
than the average difference between B. americanus and B. bonasus. 
Synonymy and Nomenclature.-The first systematic name applied to the 
American bison under the binomial system of nomenclature was Bos 
americanus, given it by Gmelin in 1788, the specific name being evi- 
dently adopted from Catesby, who in 1743 called it Bison americanus, as 
did also Brisson two years later. By this specific name, coupled with 
the generic appellation of either Bos or Bison, it has since been almost 
universally known, a few very conservative naturalists having always 
regarded it as either merely a variety of the aurochs or as absolutely 
identical with it. It hence forms almost the only exception among 
North American mammals of a species that has never had a prominent 
synonym. Hernandez refers to it under the name of Taurus mexicanus, 
but Hernandez wrote long prior to the establishment of the binomial 
system of nomenclature, as did also Nieremburg, who called it Tawrus 
quivirensis, so that these names have never been regarded as having a 
claim to priority. 
To the Spanish colonists the American bison was commonly known 
under the name of Cibola, but some Spanish writers speak of it under 
the name Bisonte, while De Laet and others called it Armenta. Boeuf 
sauvage was the name given it by Du Pratz, though often al*o called 
Bufflc, Vache sauvage, and sometimes Bison d'Amerique, by the early 456 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
French colonists, while theCanadian royageurs are said to term it simply 
le boeuf. Kalin spoke of the American bisons as TFiWe Ochsen and Kiihe, 
while the early English explorers also often referred to this animal under 
the same English equivalent, and also used for it the names Baffle and 
Boeuf saurage. These two last-mentioned names were also applied, by 
both the early French and the early English explorers, to the moose 
(yi Ices malchis) and the elk (Cercus canadensis). Charlevoix called the 
bisbn the Boeuf du Canada. Marquette called it the Pmfcwws, adopting 
the name then current among the Illinois Indians, while Hennepin called 
it Taureau saurage. Lawson and Bricknell used t he name Buffelo, which 
name, modified to Buffalo, was employed by Catesby and was early 
adopted by the English colonists. According to Richardson it is called 
Petcheek by the Algonquins, Adgiddah by the Cbepewyans, and Moos- 
toosh by the Crees. 
In the United States this animal has generally borne the name of 
buffalo, though discriminating writers persist that the name is errone- 
ous, and that it should be called the American bison. The latter is un- 
doubtedly its correct English cognomen, but probably among the people 
generally the name buffalo will never be supplanted. The term Ameri- 
can buffalo is doubtless defensible for those who prefer it, and even &?//- 
1'alo is no more a misnomer than scores of the names of our common 
mammals and birds. The name Robin as applied to Tardus migratorius, 
is even more objectionable than that of buffalo as applied to the Ameri- 
can bison. The name buffalo is of course strictly applicable only to the 
genus Bubalus, embracing the true African and Indian buffaloes. 
Figures of the American Bison.-The first figure of the bison ever pub 
lished is doubtless that given by Thevet in 1558,* three years alter the 
publication of Vaca's " Journal," in which occurs the earliest description 
of the American bison. This is an extremely rude figure, having but 
little resemblance to the bison. In 1633 De Laetf published another 
equally faulty. Nieremburg§ in 1635, and Hernandez| in 1651, published 
others, which so much resemble Thevet's that they seem to be merely 
enlarged, slightly modified copies of it. Hernandez's figure, however, 
has been repeatedly referred to as the first published figure of the Amer- 
ican bison. Towards the end of the seventeenth century a somewhat 
similar figure was published by Hennepin.§ During the eighteenth 
century others were added by Du Pratz, Lawson (in his "History of 
Carolina)!), Catesby,51 Buffon,** and others, Catesby's and Buffon's being 
very fair representations of the animal intended, and are the first that 
attain a tolerable degree of accuracy. 
The first good figures are those given by F. Cuvier and Geoffroy,tt 
consisting of a series of three, drawn from specimens living in the Me- 
nagerie at Paris. The first is that of a young male in summer pelage, 
the second that of a young female, and the third that of a calf a few 
weeks old. These are all very fine, especially in respect to color, in 
which they excel all others, those of Catlin and Audubon being of too 
dark a tint. 
Catlin, in his "North American Indians" (Vol. I), devotes a series of 
fourteen spirited plates to the illustration of the American bison. The 
male is represented in plate vii of this work; the female in plate viii; 
* Les Singularitz de la France Antarctique, p. 145. t Amer,, p. 303. t Hist. Nat., p. 
181. $ Mex., p. 587. || Discovery of a Vast Country, etc., p. 90. y Fig. 115. ** Nat. 
Hist, of Carolina, etc., pl. xx. tt Hist. Nat., Suppl., HI, pl. v. it Hist. Nat. des Mam., 
Tome I, livr. xii (young male); Tome II, livr. xxxii (young female); Tome 111, livr. 
xlix (calf a few weeks old). ALLEN.] 
FOSSIL REMAINS OF THE BISON. 
457 
in plate ix is depicted a collision of a bull and a horse during a chase, 
and in plate x a wounded bull is represented. In plate cv is figured a 
herd in the rutting season ; in plate cvi a herd at rest, with an old bull 
wallowing in the foreground ; plates cvii to cxii form a series illustrating 
the hunting of the buffalo by the Indians; plates cxiii and cxiv repre- 
sent buffaloes attacked by wolves. 
Besides Audubon's* well known figures, among those worthy of 
special notice are those in Schoolcraft's great work on the Indians,! in 
which in plate viii is given a comparative view of the buffalo and do- 
mestic cow; in plate ix, a view of a buffalo chase; in plate x, buffalo 
hunting in winter; in plate xi, a view of a large herd of buffaloes; in 
plate xii, another view of a large herd with an old bull in the foreground; 
plate xiii, buffalo skinning. 
The earlier figures are of course noteworthy only as being the first 
attempts at delineating the American bison. Those by Catlin, on the 
other hand, truthfully and vividly depict scenes which, though formerly 
characteristic of our plains, will soon be known only in history, and are 
well worthy of consultation by any one interested in the subjects be 
there delineates. Audubon's illustrations are faithful likenesses, and 
the scenes and figures given in Schoolcraft's wfirk may also be examined 
with profit; the most accurate figures, however, are those given by Cu- 
vier and Geoffroy. 
Fossil Remains.-The remains of the American bison in a fossil or 
semifossil condition have been found sparingly over a wide area, but 
no instance is at present known of their discovery beyond the known 
limits of its range at the time of the earliest explorations of the con- 
tinent. In the National Museum at Washington are semifossil remains 
from Colorado, collected by Major Powell, and from Kansas, collected 
by Dr. Hayden. I found a fossil tooth of this species in Central Iowa, 
and have received from Mr. Orestes II. St. John a fossil astragalus from 
the banks of the Big Blue River in Kansas. Professor Wyman has 
reported its remains from the mounds of the Lead Region in Wisconsin 
and Iowa ; Dr. Leidy has figured a tooth from the Lead crevices of Jo 
Daviess County, Illinois, and also from the Ashley River, South Caro- 
lina.!: Professor Baird has reported the existence of its fossil remains 
in the caverns of Central Pennsylvania. The alleged occurrence of its 
remains at Gardiner, Maine, proves, however, to be probably erroneous, 
as will be shown further on.§ 
Its bones have also been found in large quantities about the Salt 
Licks of the Ohio Valley, especially at Big-bone Lick, Kentucky. The 
accumulations at the last-named locality date back to remote times, 
since in the lower strata of these bone deposits are found the bones of 
Mastodon americanus, Megalonyx, Elephas, an extinct species of Equus, 
and an extinct species of Ovibos, but, according to Professor Shaler, 
the bones of Bison americanus occur only in the more superficial 
strata, which are composed almost solely of the remains of this 
animal. These remains differ in no appreciable respect, in form or 
in size, from those of the recent bisou of the Plains.|| The only 
* Quad. North America, Vol. II, pls. Ivi, Ivii. 
tHist. Prosp. & Cond. Indian Tribes of North America, Vol. IV, pls. viii-xiii. 
t In both instances doubtfully referred by Dr. Leidy to Bison lalifrons. 
See the chapter on the Geographical Distribution of the American Bison. 
|| A skull from Big-bone Lick (No. 2047, M. C. Z.) presents the greatest convexity of 
the forehead of any I have met with, but does not differ in other respects from ordinary 
examples. Ou the other hand, other Big-bone Lick skulls exhibit the usual degree 
of flatness. No. 2050 has unusually large horn-cores, but is not in other respects dis- 
tinguishable from average recent examples. 458 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
difference of note consists in the very different manner of the wearing 
of the molar teeth. In the recent bison of the Plains, the crowns of the 
teeth present a nearly even surface, every part of the tooth being worn 
to nearly the same level. In the remains from Big-bone Lick, however, 
the crown surface wears into a series of deep transverse serrations, the 
ridges of which often rise a fourth of an inch above the interven- 
ing hollows. The difference between the two in this respect is strik- 
ingly great, and evidently relates to the different character of the 
food obtainable in the two districts. The bison of the Plains necessarily 
feeds wholly upon short, tine grasses, which rarely attain a height of 
more than a few inches, and are consequently at times more or less 
sprinkled with sand and dust. Tlie Ohio Valley, on the contrary, is a 
region of rank herbage, and tall, succulent grasses. The Plains bison 
must take with its food more or less gritty material,* which tends not 
only to wear the teeth down evenly, but far more rapidly than was the 
case in the Ohio Valley, the teeth in the Plains bisons generally being 
very much worn, even in middle-aged animals, while in very old ani- 
mals the teeth are often worn down to the fangs. Even the temporary 
set become wholly worn out before they give place to the permanent 
series. Nothing of this kind has been observed in specimens from Big- 
bone Lick, even in the oldest individuals. 
[f] " On the Age of the Bison in the Ohio Valley.-By N. S. 8haler.- 
In the original Memoir of Mr. Allen, allusion is made to certain re- 
searches carried on by me in Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, which have 
some reference to the question of the age of the Buffalo in the Ohio 
Valley. These investigations, begun in 1868 and continued in 1869, 
have only been sufficient to point the way to further studies which it is 
in the plan of the Kentucky Geological Survey to prosecute, but which 
it may not be in its power to undertake for some time to come. I 
therefore give a short sketch of the evidence collected at Big Bone 
Lick with a view to showing the limits of the observations that have 
been made there. 
"The springs at Big Bone Lick, as at all the other licks of Kentucky, 
are sources of saline waters derived from the older Palaeozoic rocks. 
These saline materials, as has been suggested by Dr. Sterry Hunt, have 
their origin in the imprisoned waters of the ancient seas, or in the salts 
derived therefrom, which have been locked in the depths of the strata 
below the reach of the leaching action of the surface water. Whenever 
the rocks lie above the line of the drainage, these salts have been leached 
away. As we go below the surface they increase in quantity until we 
reach the level, where these waters remain saturated with the materials 
which existed in the old sea-waters. The displacement of these old 
imprisoned waters is brought about by the sinking down of water on the 
highlands through the vertical interstices of the soil and rock, and the 
consequent tendency of the water below the surface to restore the hydro- 
static balance. This action is particularly likely to occur when the 
rocks above the drainage are limestones or shales; while a bed of rock 
at some distance below the drainage is of sandstone and permeable to 
water. This is the case at Big Bone Lick, where at about two hundred 
feet below the surface we have the calciferous sandstone with a struc- 
ture open enough to admit the free passage of water in a horizontal 
direction. That some such process is at work is shown by the fact that 
* Ill the teeth of specimens from the Plains I have found sharp, angular particles of 
quartz wedged into the cavities of the teeth. 
[tTlie matter here interpolated in quotation-marks constitutes App. II of the origi- 
nal.-Ed.] ALLEN. J 
AGE OF THE BISON IN THE OHIO VALLEY. 
459 
the water will rise ten feet or more above the surface of the soil if 
enclosed in a pipe. The fact that the reservoir of these waters is below 
the general surface causes them to appear iu the bottom of the valleys, 
and the considerable abstraction of matter from the underlying beds 
probably amounts to some hundred cubic feet per annum in the case of 
Big Bone Lick, causes a depression at the point of escape, and brings 
about pretty generally the formation ofa swamp in a depressed aud con- 
stantly lowering basin, through which the spring water seeps away, and 
where a large part of it is usually evaporated. This swamp forms a 
natural trap for all the higher mammalia in it. When excavations are 
made near the existing outlets of the springs, we find the remains of the 
large mammals brought by man, the horse, cow, pig, and sheep. 
" In the frequent change of outlet of these springs, it comes to pass 
that at many points near the surface of the thirty or forty acres'that lie 
in the little basin where Big Bone Lick is found, there are old spring 
vents, about which bones are found, that no longer give forth saline 
waters. It is a fact bearing on the history of the buffalo, that their 
remains about Big Bone Lick are, when found, away from the purest 
springs aud never at any depth beneath the surface. In the recent 
springs they are very abundant, but not mrtch more ancient in their 
appearance than the domesticated animals. The evidence obtained at 
this point leads to the conclusion that the first appearance of this spe- 
cies into the country was singularly recent, and also shows that their 
coming was like an irruption in its suddenness. These buffalo bones 
are wonderfully abundant in some of the shallow swampy places of this 
neighborhood. I have seen them massed to the depth of two feet or 
more, as close as the stones of a pavement, and so beaten down by the 
succeeding herds as to make it difficult to lift them from their bed. 
' As will be seen from the accompanying diagram, [here omitted,] 
there seems to have been some degradation of the surface of this 
swamp after the deposition of many of the mastodon remains, and 
before the coining of the buffalo. This lowering of level was appar- 
ently consequent on the down cutting of the bed of the small creek 
that drains the valley. The old elevated beds had probably washed a 
good deal when the buffalo came, but it was principally by its wallow- 
ing and stamping that the bones of the mastodon, elephants, &c., were 
exposed to the air. At no point in this old ground did I find a trace 
of the buffalo, though in some of it the bones identified by Mr. Allen as 
belonging to Ovibos were found. There, too, were found the bones of 
the moose and caribou. I am inclined to believe from these investiga- 
tions that the Bison americanus did not appear at Big Bone Lick until 
a very recent time. 
"All the observations made by the Kentucky Survey in the caverns of 
the State, and the neighboring district of Tennessee, have led to the 
discovery of no bison remains in these subterranean receptacles, where 
the bones of the beaver, deer, wolf, bear, and many other mammals 
have been discovered. The observations of the officers of the survey, 
to be published hereafter, will show that our caves have been used as 
the homes of the living and the receptacles of the dead by more than 
one of the earlier tribes of this region, but they seejn never to have 
brought the bones of this animal to the caves. 
" Some years ago I ventured to call attention to the general absence of 
the remains of this animal in all the mounds of the historic and pre- 
historic races, and to the fact that on their pipes and pottery, though 
they figure every other indigenous mammal and some of the birds of 
this region, seeking their models even iu the mauitee of Florida, 1 have 460 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
never been able to find any trace of buffalo bones in any of tbe mounds 
which so often contain bones of other animals, nor have I been able to 
ascertain that they have ever been found in such places. At an ancient 
camping-ground on the Ohio River, about twelve miles above Cincin- 
nati, where the remains are covered by alluvial soil of apparently some 
antiquity, and where the pottery (hereafter to be figured in the Memoirs 
of the Survey) is rather more ancient in character than that m ide by 
our modern Indians, I found bones of deer, elk, bear, fox, &e., but none 
of buffalo. At a number of o her old camps on the Ohio River there 
is the same conspicuous absence of the remains of this animal. These 
evidences, negative and incomplete as they are, make it at least proba- 
ble that the buffalo was unknown to the people who built the mounds 
and preceded the tribes which were found here by tbe yvhites in the 
seventeenth century. The same arguments warrant us iu supposing 
that the Bison latifrons, with its contemporaries, the musk ox, the 
elephant, and the mastodon, had vanished before the advent of this 
race, or at least before the time of which we have evidence in the fossils 
already found. 
" I have long been of the opinion, without claiming originality therein, 
that the tribes which built the mounds and shapely measured forts of this 
region were driven to the southward by an invasion of other tribes 
coming from the northward and northwestward. . In the Memoirs now 
in preparation concerning the ancient peoples of this region, it will be 
claimed, on what seems to Mr. Lucian Carr, ethnologist of the Survey, 
and to myself, sufficient evidence that these mound-building peoples 
were essentially related to the Natchez group of Indians, and were driven 
southward bythe ruder tribes of the somewhat related tribes which 
occupied the northern parts of the Mississippi Valley when we first 
knew it. All this seems to me to have a possible significance in the 
problem of the coming of tbe buffalo. When we remember that the In- 
dians north of the Ohio were much in the habit of burning the forests, 
and so making open plains or prairies, and that, as Mr. Allen has well 
pointed out, the buffalo cannot penetrate far into the denser forests, it 
may be that it was this destruction of forests that laid the way open 
to their entrance. The so-called Barrens of Kentucky, the southward 
extension of the Wabash prairies, give us evidence on this point. As 
soon as the Indians were driven away, these Kentucky prairies sprang 
up iu timber and are now densely wooded. The same is in part true of 
other prairies of the Ohio Valley. I am inclined to think that tbe forc- 
ing back of the timber line from the Mississippi is principally due to 
the burning of the forests by the aborigines in their eastward working, 
aided by the continued decrease of the rain-fall, which I believe to have 
been a concomitant of the disappearance of the glacial period.* The 
question of the origin of the buffalo and its relation to the earliest tribes 
of people in this district is made still more complicated by the fact that 
there is no doubt that there was an earlier and closely related species of 
buffalo in this district, probably coeval with the mammoth and mastodon, 
and possibly with the caribou and elk, which had doubtless disappeared 
before the coming of any race of men that has as yet been identified in 
this country. 
" The succession of events in this region, as far as the species of bison 
are concerned, seems to have been somewhat as follows, viz.:- 
"1st. The existence of the Bison latifrons in company with the mam- 
moth and its contemporaries,-the mastodon, musk ox (Bootherium cavi- 
* Notes on the cause and geological value of variations in rain-fall; Proceedings of the 
Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xviii, p. 176, ct seq. ALLEN.] 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS. 
461 
frons, Leidy), etc. This species, like its contemporaries, by its size 
gave evidence of the even climate and abundant vegetation ot the time 
just following, and probably in part during the glacial period. 
"2d. The disappearance of this fauna, followed by the coming of a 
race (mound-builders) that retained no distinct traditions, and have left 
no art records of the presence of any of the large animals of the pre- 
ceding time. 
"3d. The disappearance of this race from the region north of the 
Tennessee, probably leaving representatives in the Natchez group of 
Indians, followed by the occupation of the country by a race that greatly 
extended the limits of the treeless plains to the eastward, and so per- 
mitted the coming of the modern bison into this region. 
"1 have long been disposed to look upon the succeeding glacial periods 
as the most effective causes of the changes that led to the determination 
of new specific characters among animals, and I am strongly disposed to 
think that in the B. americanus we have the descendant of the B. 
latifrons, modified by existence in the new conditions of soil and climate 
to which it was driven by the great changes closing the last ice age. 
"When the exploration of Big Bone Lick is completed, it will doubt- 
less show that there was an interval of some thousands of years between 
those two species." [End of App. IL of the original.-Ed.] 
Geographical Distribution.-Since the geographical distribution of the 
American bison, past and present, is treated at length in a subsequent 
chapter devoted especially to the subject, a few words only on this 
point will suffice in the present connection. The habitat of the bison 
formerly extended from Great Slave Lake on the north, in latitude 
about 62°, to the northeastern provinces of Mexico, as far south as 
latitude 25°. Its range in British North America extended from the 
Rocky Mountains on the west to the wooded highlands about six hun- 
dred miles west of Hudson's Bay, or about to a line running southeast- 
ward from the Great Slave Lake to the Lake of the Woods. Its range 
in the United States formerly embraced a considerable area west of the 
Rocky Mountains, its recent remains having been found in Oregon as 
far west as the Blue Mountains, and further south it occupied the Great 
Salt Lake Basin, extending westward even to the Sierra Nevada Mount- 
ains, while less than fifty years since it existed over the headwaters of 
the Green and Grand Rivers, and other sources of the Colorado. East 
of the Rocky Mountains its range extended southward far beyond the 
Rio Grande, and eastward throughout the region drained by the Ohio 
River and its tributaries. Its northern limit east of the Mississippi was 
the Great Lakes, along which it extended eastward to near the eastern 
end of Lake Erie. It appears not to have occurred south of the Ten- 
nessee River, and only to a limited extent east of the Alleghanies, 
chiefly in the upper districts of North and South Carolina. 
Its present range embraces two distinct and comparatively small areas. 
The southern is chiefly limited to Western Kansas, a part of the Indian 
Territory, and Northwestern Texas,-in all together embracing a region 
about equal in size to the present State of Kansas. The northern dis- 
trict extends from the sources of the principal southern tributaries of 
the Yellowstone northward into the British Possessions, embracing an 
area not much greater than the present Territory of Montana. Over 
these regions, however, it is rapidily disappearing, and at its present 
rate of decrease will certainly become wholly extinct during the next 
quarter of a century. 
Habits.-The American bison is, as is well known, pre-eminently a 
gregarious animal. At times herds have been met with of immense 462 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
size, numbering thousands, and even millions, of individuals. The ac- 
counts given by thoroughly veracious travellers respecting their size 
sound almost like exaggerations. Herds were formerly often met with 
extending for many miles in every direction, so that the expression "so 
numerous as to blacken the plains as far as the eye can reach" has be- 
come a hackneyed description of their abundance. Some writers speak 
of travelling for days together without ever being out of sight of buf- 
faloes, while it is stated that emigrant trains were formerly sometimes 
detained for hours by the passage of dense herds across their routes. 
In the early history of the Kansas Pacific Railway it repeatedly hap- 
pened that trains were stopped by the same cause. Such statements 
as these seem like exaggerations, but no facts are perhaps better at- 
tested. I must myself confess to slight misgivings in respect to their 
thorough truthfulness until I had, in 1871, an opportunity of seeing the 
moving multitudes of these animals covering the landscape on the plains 
of Kansas, when I was convinced of the possibility of the seemingly 
most extravagant reports being true. Cnly when demoralized and 
broken up by constant persecution from hunters do the herds become 
scattered. At other times only the old bulls, lean and partly disabled 
from age, leave the herds and wander as stragglers. 
The organization and composition of the herds, though wholly simple 
and natural, has been the subject of much romancing on the part of a few 
fanciful writers. Generally the cows with their calves are found toward 
the middle and on the front of the herds, the cows being at all times 
more watchful than the bulls, and also more active. The cows are 
hence the first to detect danger, and generally take the initiative in the 
movements of the herd. The younger animals of both sexes mingle 
with the cows, as do also to a greater or less extent the younger and 
middle-aged bulls. The older bulls are generally found nearer the out- 
side of the herd, while last of all the old patriachs of the flock bring up 
the rear. Some of the latter are often found far out on the outskirts, 
miles away from the main herd, occurring singly or in small parties of 
three or four to a dozen individuals. These are usually the superannu- 
ated members of the community, which lag behind from listlessness or 
sheer weakness. This simple grouping of the different individuals of 
the herds has given rise to exaggerated accounts of the sagacity7 of 
the buffalo, and much fine writing has at times been expended in de- 
scribing the supposed regularity and almost military precision of their 
movements. The sluggish, partly disabled old males constitute the 
lordly sentinels of such tales, who are supposed to watch with fatherly 
care over the welfare of the flock, and to give early warning of the ap- 
proach of danger. (In the contrary, these supposed alert protectors are 
the most easily approached of any members of the flock, the experienced 
hunter finding no trouble in creeping past within a few yards of them 
in endeavoring to reach the more desirable game beyond them.* They 
are slower, too, to recognize danger when it is observed. The timidity 
and watchfulness of the cows, accustomed as they are to the care of 
their offspring, lead them to take the initiative in the movements of 
the herd, and this, as already stated, keeps them near the front, espec- 
ially7 when the herd is moving. The popular belief that the bulls keep 
the cows and the young in the middle of the herd, and form themselves, 
as it were, into a protecting phalanx, has some apparent basis, but the 
theory that the old bulls, the least watchful of all the members of the 
herd, are sentinels posted on the outskirts to give notice of any ap- 
* See the chapter beyond devoted to an account of the different methods of hunting 
the buffalo. ALLEN.] 
HABITS OF THE BISON. 
463 
preaching enemy, is wholly a myth, as is also the supposition that the 
herds consist of small harems. 
The rutting season begins in July, but is not at its height till the follow- 
ing month. Barely is more than a single calf produced at a birth. The 
period of pregnancy being about nine months, the calves are born from the 
beginning of March till the end of June, and follow the mother for nearly 
a year. Generally, also, the yearlings and two and three year olds are 
found associated with the cows and younger bulls. During no part of 
the year do the sexes form separate herds, but are found mingled to- 
gether nearly in the manner already described.* It has been asserted, 
however, that the bulls select their partners and keep near them till the 
cows are about to calve, when for a time they leave them.t During the 
rutting season the bulls often wage fierce battles, but they are believed 
never to result fatally. The actions of the combatants are not much 
unlike those of domestic cattle under similar circumstances, they paw- 
ing the ground and bellowing, blustering loudly before engaging in 
actual combat. Their short horns are not apparently very dangerous 
weapons, and the stunning effect of the heavy shocks that must follow 
the violent collision of these monsters when fighting is doubtless partly 
broken by the immense thickness of hair with which their foreheads are 
protected. At this season the bulls become lean, but regain their flesh 
again in autumn, when they are usually in the best condition. The 
cows, on the other hand, as well as the yearlings and two-year-olds, are 
generally fattest in June. 
In respect to the degree of maternal affection possessed by the buffalo 
cow there seems to be a wide range of opinion among observers. Some 
* Since the above was written I have met with the following remarks from the pen 
of Col. R. I. Dodge: "When the calves are young they are kept always in the centre 
of each small herd, the cows with them, while the bulls dispose themselves on the out- 
side. When feeding, the herd is more or less scattered, but on the approach of danger 
it closes and rounds into a tolerably compact circular mass. 
" The small herds, which compose the great herd, have each generally more bulls 
than cows, seeming all on the very best terms with each other. The old bulls do un- 
doubtedly leave the herd and wander off as advance or rear guards and flankers, but I 
am disposed to believe this due to a misanthropic abnegation of society on the part of 
these old fellows, to whom female companionship no longer possesses its charm, rather 
than to their being driven out by the younger bulls, as is generally believed. This 
habitual separation of the large herd into numerous smaller herds seems to be an in- 
stinctive act, probably for more perfect mutual protection. It has been thought, said, 
and written by many persons, that each small herd is a sort of community, the harems 
and retainers of some specially powerful bull, who keeps proper order and subjection 
among them. Nothing is further from the truth. The association is not only purely 
instinctive, voluntary, free from domination of power, of sexual appetite, or individual 
preferences, but is most undoubtedly entirely accidental as to individual components. 
I have, when unobserved, carefully watched herds while feeding. I have seen two or 
more small herds merge into one, or one larger herd separate into two, or more. This 
is done quietly, gradually, and, as it were, accidentally, in the act of feeding, each 
buffalo seeming only intent on getting his full share of the best grass. I have already 
said that the cow sand calves are always in the centre, the bulls on the outside. When 
feeding herds approach each other and merge into one, the only perceptible change- 
and this is so gradual as scarcely to be noticeable-is that the bulls on the sidesof con- 
tact work themselves out toward the new circumference, which is to inclose the whole; 
and when a larger herd breaks, by the same gradual process, into smaller ones, the 
bulls instinctively place themselves on the outside of each. When pursued the herds 
rush together in one compact, plunging mass. As soon as the pursuit is over, and the 
buffaloes are sufficiently recovered from their flight to begin feeding, those on the out- 
side of the mass gradually detach themselves, breaking into smaller herds, until the 
whole large herd is in its normal condition. If each dominant bull had on such occa- 
sions to run through the herd to look up his lost wives, children, and dependents, his 
life would not only be a very unhappy, but also a very busy one."-Chicago Inter-Ocean 
(newspaper) of August 5, 1875. 
t See Audubon and Bachman's Quad. N. America, Vol. II, p. 37. 464 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
deny that the mother has any affection for its offspring, stating that 
when frightened the buffalo cow will abandon her calf without the 
slightest hesitation. On the other hand, others report her as being not 
only constantly vigilant in the care of her young, but bold in its defense. 
Colonel Dodge, indeed, states that the duty of protecting the calves 
devolves wholly upon thebulls. He says: "I have seen evidences of this 
many times, but the most remarkable instance I have ever heard of was 
related to me by an army surgeon, who was an eyewitness. He was 
one evening returning to camp, after a day's hunt, when his attention 
was attracted by the curious action of a little knot of six or eight buf- 
faloes. Approaching sufficiently near to see clearly, he discovered that 
this little knot were all bulls, standing in a close circle with their heads 
outward, while in a concentric circle at some twelve or fifteen paces dis- 
tant sat licking their chops in impatient expectancy, at least a dozen 
large gray wolves, excepting man, the most dangerous enemy of the 
buffalo. The Doctor determined to watch the performance. After a 
few moments the knot broke up, still keeping in a compact mass, and 
started on a trot for the main herd, some half a mile off. To his very 
great astonishment the Doctor now saw that the central and controlling 
figure of this mass was a poor little calf, so newly born as scarcely to be 
able to walk. After going fifty or a hundred yards the calf lay down. 
The bulls disposed themselves in a circle as before, and the wolves, who 
had trotted along on each flank of their retreating supper, and licked 
their chops again. This was repeated again and again, and although 
the Doctor did not see the Jinale (it being late, and the camp distant), 
he had no doubt that the noble lathers did their whole duty by their 
offspring, and carried it safely to the herd."* 
Audubon states, on the contrary, that the cow does not at such times 
desert its young, but tries to defend it,f which statement is confirmed 
by many plainsmen and hunters who are thoroughly conversant with 
the habits of the buffalo. 
.The moulting of the buffaloes begins quite early in the season, their 
skins being in prime condition for robes during only about three months 
of the year. They are in their best estate for this purpose in December, 
though they are in fair condition in November and January, and are 
indeed pretty fully haired in the months preceding and following these. 
The long hair on the legs, neck, and head is not annually shed, but the 
soft short wooly covering of the body is usually renewed each year. 
The short soft hair begins to loosen in February, and during the follow- 
ing mouths gradually falls, so that by May or June the body of the 
animal, especially the posterior part, becomes quite naked, and remains 
so for several weeks. Gradually the dark-colored new hair begins to 
appear, covering the animal's body with a fine soft velvety coat. Dur- 
ing the period of moulting the animal presents a very ragged and un- 
couth appearance, the woolly hair hanging here and there in matted 
loosened masses with intervening naked spaces. During this period 
the animals search for trees, bushes, rocks, or banks of earth against 
which they may rub to free themselves from the loosened hair, often 
also rolling on the ground for the same purpose. The hair on the hump, 
which is thicker and longer than that on the other parts of the body, is 
last shed, and in very old animals is not alw ays annually renewed. The 
moulting of the pelage takes place later in the ohl and lean animals 
than in the others, and nearly a month later in the cows than in the 
bulls, so that in June, while the greater part are smooth and dark, a 
* Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 5, 1875. 
t Quad. N. Am., Vol. II, p. 37. ALLKN.] 
HABITS OF THE BISON. 
465 
few are conspicuous among the others from still retaining their old and 
faded coats of the previous year. 
The buffalo is quite nomadic in its habits, the same individuals roam- 
ing, in the course of the year, over vast areas of country. Their wan- 
derings, however, are generally in search of food or water, or result 
from the persecutions of human foes. The fires that annually sweep 
over immense tracks of the grassy plains, sometimes destroying the her- 
baceous vegetation over thousands of square miles in continuous area, 
often force the buffaloes, besides inspiring them with terror, to make 
long journeys in search of food. Occasionally the ravages of the grass- 
hoppers cause similar migrations, these pests leaving large sections of 
country as bare of vegetation as it is when swept by a prairie fire. The 
habit of the buffaloes, too, of keeping together in immense herds renders 
a slow but constant movement necessary in order to find food, that of 
a single locality soon becoming exhausted. They are also accustomed to 
make frequent shorter journeys to obtain water. The streams through- 
out the range of the buffalo run mainly in an east and west direction, 
and the buffaloes, in passing constantly from the broad grassy divides 
to the streams, soon form well-worn trails, -which, running at right 
angles to the general course of the streams, have a nearly north and 
south trend. These paths have been regarded as indicating a very 
general north and south annual migration of these animals. It is, 
indeed, a wide spread belief among the hunters and plainsmen that the 
buffaloes formerly performed regularly very extended migrations, going 
south in autumn and north in spring. I have even been assured by 
former agents of the American Fur Company that before the great 
overland emigration to California (about 1849 and later) divided the 
buffaloes into two bands, the buffaloes that were found in summer on 
the plains of the Saskatchewan and Red River of the North spent the 
winter in Texas, and vice versa. The early Jesuit explorers reported a 
similar annual migration among the buffaloes east of the Mississippi 
River, and scores of travelers have since repeated the same statement 
in respect to those of the Plains. That there are local migrations of an 
annual character seems in fact to be well substantiated, especially at 
the southward, where the buffaloes are reported to have formerly, in 
great measure, abandoned the plains of Texas in summer for those 
further north, revisiting them again in winter. Before their range was 
intersected by railroads, or by the great trans-continental emigrant 
route by way of the South Pass, the movements of the herds were, 
doubtless, much more regular than at present. North of the United 
States, as late as 1858, according to Hind,* they still performed very 
extended migrations, as this author reports the Red River bands as 
leaving the plains of the Red River in spring, moving first westward to 
the Grand Coteau de Missouri, then northward and eastward to the 
Little Souris River, and thence southward again to the Red River plains. 
As already stated, a slight movement northward in summer and 
southward in winter is well attested as formerly occurring in Texas; 
the hunters report the same thing as having taken place on the plains 
of Kansas; further north the buffaloes still visit the valley of the Yel- 
lowstone in summer from their winter quarters to the southward; along 
the 49th parallel they also pass north in summer and south in winter; 
there is abundant evidence also of a similar north and south migration 
on the Saskatchewan plains. Yet it is very improbable that the buffa- 
loes of the Saskatchewan plains ever wintered on the plains of Texas; 
* Canadian Exploring Expeditions, etc., Vol. II, p. 108. 
30 G S 466 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
and absolutely certain that for twenty-five years they have not passed 
as far south even as the valley of the Platte. Doubtless the same indi- 
viduals never moved more than a few hundred miles in a north and 
south direction, the annual migration being doubtless merely a moder- 
ate swaying northward and southward of the whole mass with the 
changes of the seasons. We certainly know that buffaloes have been 
accustomed to remain in winter as far north as their habitat extends. 
North of the Saskatchewan they are described as merely leaving the 
more exposed portions of the plains during the deepest snows and 
severest periods of cold to take shelter in the open woods that border 
the plains. We have, for instance, numerous attestations of their 
former abundance in winter at Carlton House, in latitude 53°, as well 
as at other of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts. 
The local movements of the buffaloes are said to have been formerly 
very regular, and the hunters conversant with their habits knew very 
well at what points they were most likely to find them at the different 
seasons of the year. Of late, however, the buffaloes have become much 
more erratic, owing to the constant persecutions to which they have 
been for so long a time subjected. In Northern Kansas the old trails 
show that their movements were formerly in the usual north and south 
direction, the trails all having that course. Since the construction of 
the Kansas Pacific Railway, however, their habits have considerably 
changed, an east and west migration having recently prevailed to such 
an extent that a new set of trails, running at right angles to the earlier, 
have been deeply worn. Until recently the buffaloes ranged eastward 
in summer to Fort Harker, but retired westward in winter, few be- 
ing found at this season east of Fort Hays. In summer and early au- 
tumn, hunting-parties, as late as 1872, made their headquarters at Hays 
City; later in the season at Ellis and Park's Fort; while in midwinter 
they had to move their camps as far west as Coyote, Grinnell, and Wal- 
lace, or to a distance of one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles west 
of their fall camps, in consequence of the westward winter migration of 
the buffaloes. Two reasons may be assigned for this change of habit: 
first, their reluctance to cross the railroad, and secondly, the greater 
mildness of the winters to the westward of Ellis as compared with the 
region east of this point. During the winter of 1871-'72 I found that 
for a period of several weeks, in December and January, the country 
east of Ellis was covered with ice and encrusted snow sufficiently deep 
to bury the grass below the reach of either the buffaloes or the domestic 
cattle. In the vicinity of Ellis the amount of snow and ice began rapidly 
to diminish, while a little further westward the ground was almost 
wholly bare. I was informed, furthermore, that this was the usual dis- 
tribution of the snow in this region whenever any fell there. Although 
occasionally the snow does not accumulate in sufficient quantity to ren- 
der grazing difficult over any of the country west of Fossil Creek, the 
buffaloes regularly abandon this region in winter for the country fur- 
ther west, where snow is of more exceptional occurrence. 
The wanderings of the buffaloes often render it necessary for them to 
cross large streams, which they seem to do with reckless fearlessness 
and at almost any season of the year, though frequently at the cost of 
the lives of many of the old and feeble as well as of the young. Lewis 
and Clarke speak of their crossing the Upper Missouri in such numbers 
as to delay their boat, the river being filled with them as thick as they 
could swim for the distance of a mile.* Other Western travellers men- 
* Lewis and Clarke's Exped., Vol. II, p. 395. ALLEN.] 
HABITS OF THE BISON. 
467 
tion similar scenes * Bad landing-places, such as bluffy banks or miry 
shores, often prove fatal to the half-exhausted creature after reaching 
the shore.! In winter they boldly cross the rivers on the ice; toward 
spring, however, after the ice has become weakened by melting, and 
even occasionally at other times, in consequence of their crowding too 
thickly together, the ice breaks beneath their weight and great numbers 
are drowned. In spring they often cross amid the floating ice, at which 
times they are sometimes set upon by the Indians, to whom they then 
fall an easy prey. According to Audubon, small herds occasionally 
find themselves adrift on masses of floating ice, where the majority per- 
ish from cold and lack of food rather than trust themselves to the icy, 
turbulent 
The behavior and movements of the buffalo are in general very much 
like those of domestic cattle, but their speed and endurance seem to be 
far greater. When well under way, and with a good start, it takes a 
fleet horse to overtake them, their speed being much greater than one 
w ould suppose from simply watching their movements from a distance, 
their gait being a rather clumsy, lumbering gallop. When pursued, or 
when urged on by thirst, rough ground and a tumble now and then 
seem to scarcely retard their progress, they plunging headlong down 
the steep sides of ravines and resuming their course up the opposite 
slope as if they had found the ravine no obstacle to their progress. 
When thirsty, in order to get at streams or springs, they will often leap 
down vertical banks where it would be impossible to urge a horse, and 
will even descend precipitous rocky bluffs by paths where a man could 
only climb down with difficulty, and where it would seem almost impos- 
sible for a beast of their size and structure to pass except at the cost of 
broken limbs or a broken neck. On the bluffs of the Musselshell River 
I found places where they had leaped down bare ledges three or four 
feet in height with nothing but ledges of rocks for a landing-place; 
sometimes, too, through passages between high rocks but little wider 
than the thickness of their own bodies, with also a continuous precip- 
itous descent for many feet below. Nothing in their history ever sur- 
prised me more than this revelation of their expertness and fearless- 
ness in climbing.§ Ordinarily, however, the buffalo shows commendable 
sagacity in respect to his choice of routes, usually choosing the easiest 
grades and the most direct courses, so that a buffalo trail can be de- 
pended upon as affording the most feasible road possible through the 
region it traverses. 
When moving in large bands across the plains their course is often 
plainly marked by the column of dust they raise, even when the animals 
themselves are far beyond sight, the scene calling to mind the passage 
of a distant troop of cavalry at full speed, or a heavy train of army 
* Catlin, North Am. Indians, Vol. II, p. 13 ; Fremont, Explorations, etc., p. 23. 
t The following incident in point is related by Colonel Dodge: "Late in the sum- 
mer of 1867 a herd of probably four thousand buffaloes attempted to cross the South 
Platte near Plum Creek. The river was rapidly subsiding, being nowhere over a foot 
or two in depth, and the channels in the bed were tilled or filling with loose quick- 
sand. The buffaloes in front were hopelessly stuck. Those immediately behind, urged 
on by the horns and pressure of those yet further in the rear, trampled over their 
struggling companions to be themselves engulfed in the devouring sand. This was 
continued until the bed of the river, nearly half a mile broad, was covered with dead 
or dying buffaloes. Only a comparative few actually crossed the river, and these were 
soon driven back by hunters. It was estimated that considerably more than half the 
herd, or over two thousand buffaloes, paid for this attempt with their lives."-Chicago 
Inter-Ocean, August 5, 1875. 
t Audubon and Bachman, Quad. N. Am., Vol. II, p. 38. 
§ On this point see further Dr. Coues's communication given in Part II. 468 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
wagons. The presence of a herd to the windward of the observer, even 
if a mile or two distant, can usually be detected by the peculiar odor 
that arises from it, especially during the rutting season. At this time, 
too, the roaring of the bulls can often be heard when the animals are 
miles away, and hidden, perchance, by intervening swells of the prairie, 
particularly at night, or when the air is still. Few things make a more 
vivid or lasting impression-and one that at the time is often far from 
agreeable-upon the mind of the traveler, encamped far out on the open 
prairie, than the roar and tramp of an approaching herd of buffaloes, 
especially at night-time. Nothing, again, is more pleasantly exhilarat- 
ing, or gives one a stronger sense of being really amid nature's untamed 
wilds, than, when encamped on the outskirts of a quiescent herd, to be 
awakened on a fresh June morning by their distant bellowing, and to 
see them, as daylight advances, quietly grazing over a vast expanse of 
the green prairie. 
As may be well imagined, not only the movements but the habits of 
the buffaloes, in their undisturbed daily lives, are in general not far 
different from those of grazing herds of domestic cattle. They indulge 
in similar gambols, and, when belligerent, in similar blustering 
demonstrations. When approached by man they will often assume 
an aspect so threatening that a novice at buffalo-hunting might easily 
be appalled by the fierce demonstrations indulged in by the boastful but 
cowardly old bulls. Bold at first, and apparently challenging at- 
tack, the old bulls, with the head lowered and the tail erect, will pace 
uneasily to and fro, threateningly pawing the earth, or face the ap- 
proaching enemy with a sullen and most determined air only to take to 
their heels the very next moment. The bulls are at all times excessively 
fond of pawing the ground, and of throwing up the earth w ith their 
horns, thrusting them into banks when such are at hand, or into the 
bare level ground, which they accomplish by lowering themselves upon 
one knee. To such an extent do they pursue this pastime that the 
horns of the older bulls become very much worn and splintered, in 
occasional instances the horny covering of the more exposed part being 
worn very thin, and in rare instances entirely through to the bony core. 
Particularly bovine, also, is the satisfaction they take in rubbing them- 
selves against whatever will oppose resistance, whether it be rocks, 
trees, bushes, or a clay-bluff; the telegraph-poles, however, erected along 
the railroads that cross their range, afforded them especial delight as 
scratching-posts, and soon became as well smoothed and covered with 
tufts of hair and grease from their unctuous hides as are the posts about 
a farmer's cattle yard. What is very unlike anything in the habits of 
domestic cattle, how'ever, is their propensity to roll themselves on the 
ground, which, notwithstanding their seemingly inconvenient form, they 
do with the greatest ease, rolling over as completely as a horse, and 
apparently with far less exertion. But their especial delight is to roll 
in the mud, or in " wallowing," as it is termed, from w hich exercise they 
arise looking more like an animated mass of mud than their former 
selves. The object of these peculiar ablutions is doubtless to cool their 
heated bodies and to free themselves from troublesome insects. When 
not finding a muddy pool ready at hand, an old bull proceeds to prepare 
one. Finding in the low' parts of the prairies, says Catlin, who has de- 
scribed the process with considerable detail,* a little stagnant water 
amongst the grass, and the ground underneath soft and saturated with 
moisture, an old bull lowers himself upon one knee, plunges his horns 
into the ground, throwing up the earth and soon making an excavation 
* North American Indians, Vol. I, p. 241. ALLEN.] 
HABITS OF THE BISON. 
469 
into which the water trickles, forming for him in a short time a cool 
and comfortable bath, in which he wallows "like a hog in the mire." In 
this "delectable laver" he throws himself Hat upon his side, and then, 
forcing himself violently around with his horns, his feet and his huge 
hump, ploughs up the ground still more, thus enlarging his pool till 
he at length becomes nearly immersed. Besmeared with a coating 
of the pasty mixture, be at length rises, changed into " a monster of 
mud and ugliness," with the black mud dripping from his shaggy mane 
and thick woolly coat. The mud soon drying upon his body forms a 
covering that insures him immunity for hours from the attacks of in- 
sects. Others follow in succession, having waited their turns to enjoy 
the luxury; each rolls and wallows in a similar way, adding a little to 
the dimensions of the hole, and carrying away a share of the adhesive 
mud. By this means an excavation is eventually made having a diam- 
eter of fifteen or twenty feet, and two feet in depth. These wallows 
thus become characteristic marks of a buffalo country, outlasting even 
the ordinary trails, while their effect upon the country is much more 
marked, rank vegetation growing about their borders and serving to 
indicate their positions when quite distant. 
The buffaloes, however, do not always choose moist places in which 
to roll, and are quite content with wallowing in the dust when mud-and- 
water wallows are not conveniently at hand; wherever, in short, large 
herds have grazed, hollows formed by their indulgence in this propensity 
are of very frequent occurrence. These circular depressions, which are 
also usually called "wallows," are of smaller size than the water wal- 
lows, being eight to ten or twelve feet or more in diameter, and a few 
inches to upwards of a foot in depth. These also are not effaced by 
natural agencies for many years, and hence remain as lasting evidence 
of the former existence of populous herds of buffaloes at the localities 
where these old " wallows" are found. Owing to the impervious nature 
of the clayey soil that generally characterizes the Plains, these hollows 
temporarily retain the water that collects in them during falls of rain, 
affording grateful supplies of this important element to the various ani- 
mals of the region, as well as often to man, these pools usually lasting 
for several days, or until slowly evaporated by the sun. 
The American bison, like the other species of the bovine group, is 
characterized by a rather sluggish disposition, and is by no means re- 
markable for alertness or sagacity, being not only unwieldy in bulk, but 
also" the stupidest animal of the plains." As Colonel Dodge has remarked, 
" his enormous bulk, shaggy mane, vicious eye, and sullen demeanor 
give him an appearance of ferocity very foreign to his nature. Danger- 
ous as he looks, he is, in truth, a very mild, inoffensive beast, timid and 
fearful, and rarely attacking but in the last hopeless effort of self-defence. 
The domestic cattle of Texas, miscalled ' tame,' are fifty times more dan- 
gerous to footmen than the fiercest buffaloEndowed with the 
smallest possible amount of instinct, the little he has seems adapted rather 
for getting him into difficulties than out of them. If not alarmed at 
sight or smell of a foe, he will stand stupidly gazing at his companions 
in their death-throes, until the whole herd is shot down. He will walk 
unconsciously into a quicksand or quagmire already choked with strug- 
gling, dying victims. Having made up his mind to go a certain way, it 
is almost impossible to swerve him from his purposeWhen 
travelling nothing in his front stops him, but an unusual object in his rear 
will send him to the about at the top of his speed."* 
In illustration of this curious habit of the buffalo to rush into the most 
* Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 5, 1875. 470 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
apparent danger, Colonel Dodge relates the following: " The winter of 
1871-72 was unusually severe in Arkansas. The ponds and smaller 
streams to the north were all frozen solid, and the buffalo were forced to 
the rivers for water. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Bailroad was 
then in process of construction, and nowhere could this peculiarity of the 
buffalo of which I am speaking be better studied than from its trains. 
If a herd was on the north side of the track, it would stand stupidly gaz- 
ing and without symptom of alarm though the locomotive passed within 
a hundred yards. If on the south side of the track, even though at a 
distance of one or two miles from it, the passage of a train set the whole 
herd in the wildest commotion. At its full speed, and utterly regard- 
less of consequences, it would make for the track, on its line of re- 
treat. If the train happened not to be in its path it crossed the track, 
and stopped satisfied. If the train was in the way, each individual buf- 
falo went at it with the desperation of despair, plunging against or be- 
tween locomotive and cars, just as the blind madness chanced to take 
them. Numbers wrere killed, but numbers still pressed on to stop and 
stare as soon as the obstacle was passed. After having trains ditched 
twice in one week, conductors learned to have a very decided re- 
spect for the idiosyncrasies of the buffalo, and when there was a pos- 
sibility of striking a herd ' on the rampage ' for the north side of the 
track, the train was slowed up, and sometimes stopped entirely."* 
The sluggish nature and in some respects intense stupidity of the buf- 
falo hence tend greatly to place this animal wholly at the mercy of its 
enemies, chief among whom is man, whether civilized or in the savage 
state. An account of the various devices for their destruction practiced 
by man, and of the results that have followed the reckless, exterminat- 
ing slaughter he has waged upon this inoffensive and helpless animal, 
being given in subsequent portions of this memoir, it is unnecessary to 
refer at length to these matters here. Let it suffice, then, in this connec- 
tion, to say that their unwariness renders them an easy prey to the 
hunter, who, by keeping to the leeward of the herd, finds no difficulty 
in approaching these animals sufficiently near for their easy destruction, 
even when he is unmounted, while their pursuit on horseback has ever 
been one of the favorite pastimes of the sportsman. Fortunately for 
the buffaloes, they possess few other enemies, the wolves being their only 
other formidable foe. These have now become so reduced in numbers 
over most of the present range of the buffalo that they no longer form a 
very serious check upon its increase. Formerly they everywhere har- 
assed the buffalo, destroying many of the young, and even worrying and 
finally killing and devouring the aged, the feeble, and the wounded. 
Thirty years since, the wolves, next to the Indians, were the great scourge 
of the buffaloes, and had no small degree of influence in effecting their 
decrease. The earlier explorers of the plains often speak of finding a 
solitary buffalo, disabled by accident or by age, surrounded by a pack 
of hungry wolves, who would tease and wound him day and night till 
he finally fell a prey to their ravenous appetites. Catlin and other writ- 
ers have often referred to this matter at length, Catlin having also given 
a series of paintings of these encounters between the bison and his hun- 
gry tormentors.! Says Catlin, in his graphic account of one of these at- 
tacks, "During my travels in these regions [Upper Missouri coun- 
try], I have several times come across such a gang of these animals sur- 
rounding an old or wounded bull, where it would seem, from appear- 
ances, that they had been for several days in attendance, and at intervals 
* Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 5, 1875. 
I North American Indians, Vol. I, p. 257, pls. cxiii, cxiv. ALLEN.] 
HABITS OF THE BISON. 
471 
desperately engaged in the effort to take bis life. But a short time since, 
as one of my hunting companions and myself were returning to our en- 
campment with our horses loaded with meat, we discovered at a distance 
a huge bull, encircled with a gangof white wolves; we rode upas near 
as we could without driving them away, and, being within pistol-shot, 
we bad a remarkably good view, where I sat for a few moments and 
made a sketch in my note-book (plate cxiv); after which we rode up and 
gave the signal for them to disperse, which they instantly did, withdraw- 
ing themselves to the distance of fifty or sixty rods, when we found, to 
our great surprise, that the animal had made desperate resistauce, his 
eyes being entirely eaten out of his head, the gristle of his nose mostly 
gone, his tongue half eaten off, and the skin and flesh of his legs toru 
almost literally into strings. In this tattered and torn condition, the 
poor old veteran stood bracing up in the midst of bis devourers, who 
had ceased hostilities for a few minutes to enjoy a sort of parley, recov- 
ering strength and preparing to resume the attack in a few moments 
again. In this group some were reclining to gain breath, whilst others 
were sneaking about and licking their chops in anxiety for a renewal of 
the attack; and others, less lucky, had been crushed to death by the feet 
or the horns of the bull. I rode nearer to the pitiable object as he stood 
bleeding and trembling before me, and said to him, ' Now is your time, 
old fellow, and you had better be off.' Though blind and nearly de- 
stroyed, there seemed evidently to be a recognition of a friend in me, as 
he straightened up, and, trembling with excitement, dashed off at full 
speed upon the prairie, in a straight line. We turned our horses and re- 
sumed our march, and when we had advanced a mile or more we looked 
back, and on our left, where we saw again the ill-fated animal surrounded 
by his tormentors, to whose insatiable voracity he unquestionably soon 
fell a victim." 
The buffalo, when taken young, is easily tamed, and soon becomes 
thoroughly domesticated. With this fact so well known, it seems re- 
markable that this animal should not have long since been added to 
our list of domesticated and useful animals. The few experiments that 
have been made seem to have met with encouraging results, as will be 
shown in a later portion of the present memoir,* and to have failed 
simply through lack of interest and persistency. Through crossing 
them with domestic cattle they have even given promise of improved 
breeds, and an attempt to propagate them in confinement by an enter- 
prising stock-raiser, either as pure stock or as a mixed race, would un- 
doubtedly prove remunerative. In the vicinity of the present range of 
of the buffalo, tame individuals are frequently met with, which are 
reared and kept simply as pets or objects of curiosity, just as occasional 
specimens of the deer, elk, or pronghorn are kept. A young buffalo 
that was owned by the sutler at Fort Hays in 1871, then about two 
years old, proved to be a most eccentric and amusing beast. Through 
the attentions of visitors he acquired, among his other accomplishments, 
a great fondness for beer, of which he would sometimes partake to ex- 
cess, when he would occasionally perform rather strange antics. He 
was usually inoffensive in his manners, though latterly his behavior to 
strangers was rather too familiar to be always agreeable, and gradually 
he became somewhat irritable in consequence of constant teasing. But 
on these occasions of inebriety he sometimes took it into his head to 
clear the so-called "officers' room" at the sutler's, to which he was often 
admitted, of its occupants. On one of these occasions be is reported 
* See the chapter on " The Domestication of the Buffalo." 472 
REPORT UNITED SPATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
to have mounted a billiard-table, from which he was not easily dislodged; 
at another time he is said to have ascended the stairs leading to the 
second story, and was with great difficulty induced to descend again. 
His excesses, lack of proper care, and unnatural diet at length seemed 
to seriously impair his health, as he soon grew thin, and did not long 
survive. 
The herds of cattle that are driven from Texas to Wyoming and other 
Northern Territories are sometimes accompanied by one or two young 
tamed buffaloes. Two two-year old buffaloes thus reached Percy, Car- 
bon County, Wyoming, in December, 1871, en route for Utah. One of 
them, however, was killed by some hunters near Percy, who claimed to 
have mistaken it for a wild animal,-a fate which not unfrequently be- 
falls the tamed buffaloes of the frontier. The other was shipped west- 
ward by rail with the rest of the herd. These individuals mixed as 
freely with the domestic cattle as any other members of the herd, and 
were as easily managed, and bad no greater fear of man than the others. 
The very young buffalo calf, when separated from its mother, often 
evinces the utmost stupidity and lack of discernment; sometimes thrust- 
ing its nose into a tuft of herbage, it seems to imagine itself wholly hid- 
den from view, and, in its fancied security, will stand and allow itself 
to be captured. A horse seems to possess for it a strange fascination, 
and it is very apt, when one is lost from the herd, to follow one when- 
ever opportunity for it offers. In this way buffalo calves have frequently 
been known to follow a horse and its rider into the nearest military or 
trading-post, miles from the herd. Catlin speaks of several that he sent 
down the Missouri by steamers to friends in Saint Louis, which had un- 
wittingly in this way made themselves prisoners. 
It may here be added, however, that the stupidity of the buffalo, as 
well as its sagacity, has been by some writers greatly overstated. A 
herd of buffaloes certainly possesses, in an eminent degree, the sheep-like 
propensity of blindly following its leaders, whenever a large affrighted 
herd is fleeing from some real or fancied danger. It certainly seems a 
stupid thing for a whole herd to rush into destruction instead of turn- 
ing aside and avoiding the danger. A little reflection, however, will 
show that in such instances as the rushing of a herd over a precipice or 
into a pound prepared especially to entrap them the act is not wholly 
one of stupidity, but comparable to that of a panic-stricken crowd ot 
human beings rushing pell-mell from a public building when an alarm 
of fire is given, at the cost of limbs and lives, when more deliberate ac- 
tion would avoid such accidents. In the case of the buffalo, the indi- 
viduals in the front ranks of a herd, rushing to the verge of a precipice 
or into a pound, discover the danger too late to be able to turn aside if 
they would, owing to the irresistible pressure of the mass behind, who 
are not in position to be aware of the danger toward which they are 
moving. Their crowding together on weak ice may result in disasters 
they can hardly be expected to foresee. Their crowding forward into 
quicksands is presumably the blind action of more or less excited herds ; 
a rashness a single animal or a few together would avoid. 
Many other details respecting the habits of the buffalo might be ap- 
propriately added to the present account, especially in relation to their 
behavior in captivity and when pursued or attacked by their human 
foes ; but as most of these points will be noticed quite fully incidentally 
in subsequent portions of this memoir, it is perhaps unnecessary to refer 
to them further in the present connection. PART II. 
I-GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, PAST AND PRESENT, OF 
BISON AMERICAN US. 
The fate of none of our larger mammals is more interesting than is 
that of the bison, since total extermination is eventually surer to none 
than to this former "monarch of the prairies." Since Europeans first 
came to this continent all the larger ruminants and carnivores have 
become greatly reduced in number throughout its vast extent, and 
many species have already become extinct over extensive areas where 
they were formerly the most characteristic animals. The moose and the 
caribou have a far less extended range, particularly to the southward, 
now than formerly ; the common deer, once abundant throughout East- 
ern North America, is now confined to the least settled parts of the 
country, having totally disappeared over three-fourths of the region it 
formerly occupied; the elk, formerly existing over nearly the whole 
continent, now scarcely survives east of the Mississippi River, though 
less than half a century ago it ranged in large bauds over the fertile 
prairies of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and was of occa- 
sional occurrence in the mountainous parts of even the Atlantic States; 
the bear, the wolf, and the panther, formerly so numerous as to be, if 
not dangerous, at least a source of great annoyance to the early settlers, 
are now found, east of the Great Plains, only in the least settled and 
more broken wooded portions of the country. The bison, at once the 
largest and the most important animal to the aboriginal tribes of this 
continent, as it was also the most numerous over the immense region it 
frequented, still occurs in almost numberless bands, but it has become 
so circumscribed in its habitat, and is so constantly persecuted by pro- 
fessional hunters, that its total extermination seems to be fast approach- 
ing. 
The precise limits of the range of the buffalo at the time when the first 
Europeans visited America is still a matter of uncertainty, yet reliable 
data are sufficiently abundant to establish the boundaries of its habitat 
at that time with tolerable exactness. These data exist in the form of 
incidental memoranda in the narratives of the early explorers rather than 
in formal statements bearing directly upon the subject, and though oft jn 
unsatisfactorily vague in respect to dates and localities, they enable us 
to trace approximately the eastern and southern boundary of its habitat 
at a date as early at least as the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
It was, beyond doubt, almost exclusively an animal of the prairies and 
the woodless plains, ranging only to a limited extent into the forested dis- 
tricts east of the Mississippi River, and never occurring as a regular 
inhabitant of the denser woodlands. The opinion most prevalent in re- 
spect to its primitive range, as expressed by authors who have given 
most attention to the subject, is, that it for a long time inhabited the 
whole of that part of North America east of the Rocky Mountains 
between the parallels of 30° and 60°; some, however, make the Alle- 
ghanies the eastern limit of its eastward extension. To the westward 
some have considered its habitat as embracing a considerable part of 
473 474 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
that portion of the western slope of the Rocky Mountains contained 
within the United States. The purpose of the present article is not 
only to determine, as definitely as can now be done, its former extreme 
limit of distribution, but to give also a detailed history of its extermina- 
tion over the area from which it has disappeared. Although hundreds 
of volumes and distinct papers relating to the early exploration and 
settlement of the country embraced within the former range of this 
animal have been consulted in the preparation of this paper, there 
probably still exist many important facts, incidentally recorded in little- 
known "documents and "in works in which such facts would hardly be 
expected to occur, which have been overlooked, and w'hich will ulti- 
mately serve to indicate still more definitely the date of its extinction 
at particular localities, though little probably that will materially affect 
the general results herewith presented. 
Probable extent of its former habitat.-The boundaries of the former 
habitat of the buffalo appear to have been about as follows: Beginning 
with the region east of the Mississippi River, its extension to the north- 
ward was limited by the Great Lakes, while the Alleghanies may be 
taken as its general eastern limit, its occurrence in the mountainous 
and more elevated parts of the Carolinas being due rather to the 
occasional wandering of small bands through the mountains from the 
immense herds that formerly inhabited the valleys of West Virginia and 
the adjacent parts of Kentucky and Tennessee, than to this region hav- 
ing been regularly embraced within its habitat. To the southward it 
seems never to have been met with south of the Tennessee River. It is 
well known to have ranged over Northern and Western Arkansas, and 
thence southward over the greater part of Texas and across the Rio 
Grande into Mexico. Westward it extended over Northern New Mexico 
and then westward and northward throughout the Great Salt Lake 
Basin, and probably to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and 
the Blue Mountains in Oregon. North of the United States, its western 
boundary seems to have been formed by the main chain of the Rocky 
Mountains, among the foot-hills of which it has been found as far north 
as the sources of the Mackenzie River. Its most northern limit ap- 
pears to have been the northern shore of the Great Slave Lake in about 
latitude G2° to G4°. In the British Possessions its range to the eastward 
did not extend beyond the plains west of the Hudson's Bay highlands. 
Thence southward it occupied the valleys of the Saskatchewan and its 
tributaries to Lake Winnipeg and the valley of the Red River of the North. 
It ranged thence southward over the head-waters of the Mississippi, 
extending eastward nearly to the western shore of Lake Michigan, and 
thence still eastward over the prairies of Northern Indiana, and along 
the southern shore of Lake Erie into Western Pennsylvania, where, as 
already stated, the Alleghanies formed, in general, its eastern limit. It 
was hence wholly absent from the region immediately north of the Great 
Lakes, and consequently from every portion of the present Canadas; its 
existence on the Atlantic slope of the continent being also confined to 
the highlands of North and South Carolina. With this preliminary 
statement respecting the extent of its former habitat, we will pass now 
to the details of the subject, presenting not only the evidence on which 
this general statement rests, but also investigating the numerous sup- 
posed references to its occurrence outside of these boundaries. 
The evidence bearing upon the general subject is, of course, resolva- 
ble into two kinds: first, that of a positive character, or direct state- 
ments touching the points at issue; secondly, inferential evidence, mainly 
of a negative character. The first explorers of the different parts of ALLEN. ] 
FORMER GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
475 
the continent, being largely dependent for sustenance upon the chase, 
have naturally recorded in the narratives of their explorations the wild 
animals they met with. In the case of an animal so important as the 
buffalo, it is presumable that they would usually state where it was first 
encountered, and that they would refer frequently to its presence or ab- 
sence, as the case might be, at subsequent periods of their journeys. 
When no reference whatever is made to the buffalo in the narratives of 
different travelers who passed at different times over the same region, 
it has been assumed, in the total absence also of all other evidence to 
the contrary, that the buffalo did not, during that period at least, exist 
over the special area in question. 
The use of the term vaches sauvages by many of the early French 
Jesuit writers, and that of wild cows by .some of the early English ex- 
plorers, and also the terms buffe, baffle, and bwuf sauvage, for the desig- 
nation of the moose (Alces malchis) and the elk (Cervus canadensis) as 
well as the buffalo, has resulted in erroneous conclusions in respect to 
the former range of the buffalo. Difficulties have also often arisen in 
respect to the identification of localities from the fact that the names of 
rivers, lakes, etc., were often differently applied by different writers, 
and were frequently entirely different from those now employed to des- 
ignate the same landmarks. Care, however, has been taken to trace 
out, in such cases, the modern equivalents of the older geographical 
names. 
For convenience of treatment the former supposed habitat of the buf- 
falo is divided into several districts, which are treated separately in what 
has seemed to be their most natural order. 
THE EASTERN BOUNDARY OF THE FORMER HABITAT OF THE BUFFALO 
CONSIDERED, INCLUDING AN EXAMINATION OF THE ALLEGED EVI- 
DENCE OF ITS OCCURRENCE IN NEW ENGLAND, THE CANADAS, THE 
MARITIME PARTS OF THE MIDDLE STATES, VIRGINIA, THE CARO- 
LINAS, AND FLORIDA. 
As already stated, many prominent authorities have regarded the 
range of the buffalo as formerly extending eastward to the Atlantic 
Coast, including the Middle States, and even portions of New England 
and the Canadas, while others seem to have had no doubt of its former 
existence from New York along the seaboard to Florida. Its former oc- 
currence in the western parts of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Vir- 
ginia, and Pennsylvania is established beyond question; but its presence 
elsewhere on the Atlantic slope is highly questionable. Dr. Richardson, 
writing in 1829, says: "At the period when Europeans began to form set- 
tlements in North America this animal [the American Bison] was occa- 
sionally met with on the Atlantic Coast," etc.* De Kay, writing in 1842, 
also leaves it to be inferred that the buffalo existed generally along the 
Atlantic slope south of New York. He says : "The bison, or American 
buffalo, has long since been extirpated from this State [New York]; and 
although it is not at present found east of the Mississippi, yet there is 
abundant testimony from various writers to show that this animal was 
formerly numerous along the Atlantic coast, from New York to Mexico."! 
Unfortunately, however, be gives no reference to any of this "abundant 
testimony." Captain R. B. Marcy, writing in 1853, says: "Formerly, 
buffaloes were found in countless herds over almost the entire northern 
* Richardson, Faun. Bor. Americana, Vol. I, p. 279, 1829. 
t Zoology of New York, Vol. I, p. 110,1842. 476 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
continent of America, from the twenty-eighth to the fiftieth degree of 
north latitude, and from the shores of Lake Champlain to the Rocky 
Mountains."* and also cites a number of supposed references to its oc- 
currence in Newfoundland, New England, and Virginia. Professor 
Baird, as late as 1857, also states as follows: "The American buffalo 
was formerly found throughout the entire eastern portion of the United 
States to the Atlantic Ocean, and as far south as Florida"! 
Region North of North Carolina.-Various writers during the last part 
of the sixteenth and the early part of the seventeenth centuries speak 
also of its occurrence in Canada, New England, A irginia, the Carolinas, 
and Florida; but some of these countries then embraced regions of in- 
definite extent to the westward, and thus often (as in the case of Canada 
and Florida, certainly) did in those early times include a portion of the 
range of the buffalo. But upon careful examination of the writings of 
these authors I have failed to find a single mention of the occurrence of 
this animal within the present limits of New York, New England, Can- 
ada, or Florida that will bear a critical examination. On the other hand, 
in a score or more distinct enumerations of the animals of Virgina and 
New England, made prior to 1650, not a single allusion is made to the 
buffalo as existing on the Atlantic slope, north of the Carolinas, although 
all the other larger mammals are mentioned, and here and there de- 
scribed with sufficient detail to render them unquestionably 
* Marcy's Exploration of the Red River, p. 103, 1653. 
t Mammals of N. America, p. 684. See also Patent-Oifice Report, Agricultural, loot- 
'52, p. 124, 1852. . , „ 
| A few of these general notices, taken from a variety of sources, but largely from 
Hakluyt's and Purchas's collections of voyages, are appended as examples of their gen- 
eral character:- , „ . . - ... , . 
James Cartier, or Jacques Carthier, in 1534, reported "great store of wilde beasts, as 
Faunes, Stags, Beares, Marternes, Hares and Foxes, with divers other sorte, on the 
St. Lawrence, but mentions no other large animals-nothing like the buffalo in his 
several distinct enumerations of the "beasts."-Hakluyt, I oyages, \ ol. HI, pp. 231- 
290. 
Sir Francis Roberaul, in his account of his voyage up the St. Lawrence in l.>42, says 
of the Indians: " They feed also of Stagges, wild Bores, Bugles, Porkespynes, and store 
of other wild beastes."-Hakluyt, Vol. Ill, p. 290. 
In Harlot's account of Virginia, written in 1587, he enumerates among the beasts, 
" Deere," "Conies," " Saquenuckot, and Maquowoc, two kinds of small beasts, greater 
than Conies, which are very good meat," "Squirels" and "Beares," and adds: "I have 
the names of eight and twenty severall sorts of beasts, which I have heard of to be 
here and there dispersed in the countrey, especially in the maine: ot which there are 
only twelve kinds that we have yet discovered, and of those that be good meat we 
know only them before mentioned."-Hakluyt, Vol. Ill, p. 333. 
In the Report of Gosnold's Voyage (1602) to Northern Virginia are enumerated 
" Deere in great store, very great and large: Beares, Luzernes, blacke loxes, Beavers, 
Otters, Wilde-cats, very large and great, Dogs like Foxes, blacke and sharpe-nosed; 
Conies."-Purchas, Pilgrims, Vol. IV, p. 1653. , . 2. » 
Martin Pring, in the account of his voyage (made in 1603), speaks of the Beasts 
of Northern Virginia, as follows : " We saw here also sundry sorts of Beasts, as Stags, 
Deere, Beares, Wolves, Foxes, Lusernes, and Dogges with sharpe noses." Again, he 
says: "The Beasts here are Stags, fallow Deere in abundance, Beares, Wolves, loxes, 
Lusernes [Raccoons], and (some say) Tygres, Porcupines, and Dogges with sharpe and 
loug noses, with many other sorts of wild beasts, whose Cases and 1 urres being 
after purchased by exchange may yeeld no small gaine to us.' Purchas, v ol. 1 v , 
pp. 1654, 1656. . . ,CAr. 
In James Rosier's account of a voyage made by Captain George V aymouth, in IbOo, 
to Virginia, we tind, in his enumeration of the products of the country, the tollowing: 
" Beassts. Deere red and fallow, Beare, M olfe, Beaver, Otter, Conie, Marterns, Sables, 
Hogs, Porkespines, Poteats, Cats, wild great, Dogs some like Foxes, some like our other 
beasts the Savages signe unto us with homes and broad eares, which we take to be 
Olkes or Loshes." (Purchas, Vol. IV, p. 1667.) The locality here referred to more 
particularly was the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, V irginia at this time including 
the northern portion of the Atlantic coast as far as it had been explored. 
Captain John Smith, in his Description of Virginia, published in 1606, says: Ot ALLEN'.] 
FORMER GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
477 
Furthermore, uo remains of the buffalo have as yet been found in the 
Indian shell-mounds of the Atlantic coast,* while the bones of elk, deer, 
caribou, bear, and other large mammals and birds occur with greater or 
less frequency at different localities, t 
Professor Baird, however, refers to the occurrence of their bones uin 
the alluvial deposits of rivers, bogs, and caves," near Carlisle, in Penn- 
sylvania.! 
Among'the more important references to the supposed occurrence 
of the buffalo on the Atlantic slope, north of the Potomac, are the 
following. One often quoted is that contained in a letter from Mr. 
Anthonie Parkhurst to Richard Hakluyt, dated 1578, concerning the 
"true state and commodities of Newfoundland." Parkhurst writes: 
"Nowe againe, for Venison plentie, especially to the North about 
the grand baie, and in the South neere Cape Race and Plesance: 
there are many other kinds of beasts, as Luzarnes, and other mighty 
beastes like to camels in greatnesse, and their feete cloven, I did see 
them farre off not able to discerne them perfectly, but their steps 
shewed that their feete were cloven, and bigger than the feete of 
Camels, I suppose them to bee a kind of Buttes which I read to 
be in the countreyes adjacent, and very many in the firme lande."§ 
Though it is supposed by some that the musk ox may have been 
referred to in this allusion to a " kind of Buttes," there is apparently 
Beasts, the chiefe are Deare, nothing differing from ours. In the Desarts, towards the 
beads of the Rivers, there are many, but amongst the Rivers, few. There is a beast 
they call Aroughcun, much like a Badger, but useth to live on trees as Squirrels doe. 
Their squirrels, some are neere as great as our smallest sort of wilde Rabbets, some 
blackish, or blacke and white, but the most are gray. A small beast they have, they 
call Assapanick, but wee call them flying Squirrels, because spreading their legs, and 
so stretching the largeness of their skinnes, that they have been seen to flie thirtio or 
fortie yards. An Opassam hath a head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is of 
the bignesse of a Cat. Under her belly she hath a bag, wherein she lodgeth, carneth, 
and suckleth her young. Mussascus, is a beast of the forme and nature of our water 
Rats, but many of them smell exceeding strongly of Musk. Their Hares are no bigger 
than our Conies, and few of them to be found. 
Their Beares are very little in comparison of those of Muscovid and lhe 
Beaver is as big as any ordinarie great Dog, but his legs exceeding short. His fore 
feet like a Dogs, his hinder feet like a Swans. His taile somewhat like the forme of a 
Racket bare without haire, which to eate the Savages esteeme a great delicate. They 
have many Otters, which as the Beavers they take with snares, and esteeme the skins 
"Teat ornaments, and of all those beasts they use to feede when they catch them. 
° 11 There is also a beast Vetchunquoyes, in the forme of a w'ilde Cat, their I oxes are like 
our silver haired Conies of a small proportion, and not smelling like those in England. 
Their Dogs of that Conn trey are like their Wolves, and cannot barke but howle; and 
their Wolves not much bigger than our English Foxes. Martins, Powlecats, Weessels, 
and Minks we know they have, because we have seene many of their skins, though 
very seidome any of them alive. But one thing is strange, that wee could never per- 
ceive their vermine destroy our Hens, Egges, nor Chickens, nor doe any hurt, nor their 
Flyes nor Serpents any way pernitious, where in the South parts of America they are 
alwaies dangerous and often deadly."-Purchas, Vol. IV, pp. 1695, 1696. 
In Hakluyt's " Description of Florida," compiled from the French authors, he says, 
under the head of " The Beastes of Florida: " " The Beastes best known in this Coun- 
trey are Stagges, Hindes. Goates, Deere, Leopards [Lynxes], Ounces, Lusernes, divers 
sorts of Wolves, wilde Dogs, Hares, Cunnies, and a certaine kinde of Beast that differ- 
ed! little from the Lyon of Africa."-Hakluyt, Vol. HI, p. 369. 
In a " True Declaration of the estate of the Colonie in Virginia," printed in 1610, we 
* I have been assured of this fact by the late Professor J. Wyman, and by Mr. 1. W. 
Putnam, and others who have made these prehistoric remains of the aborigines a 
special study. . ,, . , 
t See Wyman's Account of some Kjoekenmoeddmgs, or Shell-heaps, in Maine anil 
Massachusetts.-Amer. Naturalist, Vol. I, pp. 561-584, 1868. 
t Patent-Office Report, Agricultural, 1851-'52, p. 124. . 
§ Hakluyt, Voyages, etc., Vol. HI, p. 173, London, 1600. (The Lditi n of 1810 is the 
one quoted in this memoir.) 478 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
little reason to doubt that these "Buffes" were the moose, which the 
early voyagers found on the adjacent mainland in great numbers; 
yet Marcy* and others have supposed this to be a possible reference 
to the buffalo, probably from the occurrence of the word " Buffes." 
Another similar reference to the occurrence of an animal like an ox 
in Newfoundland is contained in the report of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's 
voyage to this island in 1583. In an enumeration of the " commodities 
thereof" are mentioned " Beasts of sundry kindes, red deare, bullies 
or a beast, as it seemeth by the tract & foote very large, in maner of 
an oxe."t In the account of the "first voyage made to the coast of 
America" by Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, in 1584, it 
is said that they treated with the Indians for " Chamoys, Buffe and 
Deere skinnes";} and Thomas Ilariot, in his " briefe and true report 
of the new found land of Virginia," written in 1587, mentions " Deer 
skinnes dressed after the manner of Chamoes, or undressed," among 
the commodities of the country. § The same writer speaks later of the 
" beasts " of Virginia, and says, " I have the names of eight and twenty 
severall sorts, .... of which there are only twelve kinds that we 
have yet discovered, and of those that be good meat, we know only them 
before mentioned," among which there is no mention of any " Buffes," 
" Buffies," " wild Cattle," or anything that can be regarded as at all 
like the buffalo. || 
read: "The Beasts of the Countrie, as Deere, red, and fallow, do auswere in multitude 
(people for people considered) to oui* proportion of oxen, which appeareth by these 
experiences. First the people of the Countrie are apparelled in the skinnes of these 
beasts; Next, hard by the fort, two hundred in one heard have been usually observed. 
Further, our men have seen 4000. of these skins pyled up in one wardroabe of Powhatan; 
Lastly, infinite store have been presented to Captaine Newport upon sundry occurrents : 
such a pleutie of Cattell, as all the Spaniards found not in the whole kiugdomeof Mexico, 
when all their presents were but hennes, and ginycocks, and the bread of Maize, and 
Cently. There are Arocouns, and Apossouns, in shape like to pigges, shrouded in hol- 
low roots of trees; There are Hares and Conies, and other beasts proper to the Countrie 
in plentifull manner."-Force's Coll. Hist. Tracts, Vol. Ill, No. 1, p. 13. 
Captain John Smith, in his " Description of New Englaud," printed in 1616, thus 
enumerates the "beasts": "Moos, a beast bigger than a Stagge ; Deere, red, and Fal- 
low; Bevers, Wolves, Foxes, both blacke and other; Aroughcouds [raccoons], Wild- 
cats, Beares, Otters, Martins, Fitches, Musquassus, and diverse sorts of vermine, whose 
names I know not."-Force's Coll. Hist. Tracts, Vol. II, No. 1, p. 17. 
William Strachey, in his " Historic of Travaile into Virginia Britannia," written 
before 1620, says: " .... the people [about the Chesapeake Bay] breed up tame 
turkies about their bowses, and take apes in the mountaines," on the authority of an 
Indian named Machumps. Again he says: " Martins, pole-catts, weesells, and monkeys 
we knowe they have, because we have seene many of their skynus, though very sel- 
dom any of them alive."-Hakluyt Society's Publications, Vol. for 1849, pp. 26, 125. 
"In New England's Plantation " (London, 1630), it is said : "For Beasts there are 
some Beares, and they say some Lyons also; for they have been seen at Cape Anne. 
Also here are severall sorts of Deere, some whereof bring three or four young ones at 
once, which is not ordinarie in England. Also Wolves, Foxes, Beavers, Otters, Martins, 
great wild Cats, and a great Beast called a Molke [moose] as bigge as an Oxe. I have 
seen the skins of all these Beasts since I came to this Plantation, excepting Lyons. 
Also here are great store of Squerrels, some greater, and some smaller and lesser ; there 
are some of the lesser sort, they tell me, that by a certaine Skin will fly from Tree to 
Tree though they stand farre distant."-Force's Coll. Hist. Tracts, Vol. I, No. 12, p. 8. 
Thomas Morton, in his "New English Canaan," printed in 1632,devotes six pages to 
a description of the " beasts," giving very quaint and curious descriptions of all the 
more important, but makes no reference to any animal like the buffalo. 
Father Andrew White, in describing Maryland in 1632, says, " But so great is the 
abundance of swine and deer that they are rather troublesome than advantageous. 
* Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, p. 104, 1853. 
t Hakluyt, Voyages, etc., Vol. Ill, p. 195. 
t Ibid., p. 303. § Ibid., p. 327. || Hakluyt, Voyages, etc., p. 333. ALLEN] 
FORMER GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
479 
In the narrative of the travels of David Ingram from the Gulf of 
Mexico to Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia, made in 1568-69, are unques- 
tionable references to the buffalo, which have been referred to as pos- 
sible evidence of its existence on the Atlantic slope, but the whole 
narrative is full of exaggerations and fanciful descriptions of mythical 
things and scenes, while the localities are wholly vague. The account 
speaks, for instance, of " great plentye of Buffes .... wch are 
Beastes as bigge as twoe Oxen in length almost twentye foote, havinge 
longe eares like a bludde hownde wtb long heares about there eares, ther 
homes be Crooked like Kames homes, ther eyes blacke, there heares 
longe blacke, rough and bagged as a Goate, the Hydes of these Beastes 
are solde verye deare. These Beastes doe keepe Company only by 
couples a male and a female and doe always tighte wth others of the 
same kynde."* 
The account also says, " He did alsoe see in that Countrye boathe 
Elephantes and Uunces. He did also see one other straunge Beaste 
bigger than a Beare, yt had nether heade nor necke, his eyes and mouthe 
weare in his brest." It also describes " redd Sheepe " which lived in 
herds of five hundred individuals. Since Ingram's route doubtless took 
him through a portion of the range of the buffalo, the above-quoted 
description of " Buffes" may refer to that animal, but there is nothing 
to show that the locality was on the Atlantic slope. 
Cows also are innumerable, and oxen suitable for bearing burdens or for food; besides 
five other kinds of large beasts unknown to us, which our neighbors admit to their 
table. Sheep will have to be taken hence or from the Canaries; asses also, and mules 
and horses. The neighboring forests are full of wild bulls and heifers, of which five 
hundred or six hundred thousand are annually carried to Saville from that part which 
lies towards New Mexico. As many deer as you wish can be obtained from the neigh- 
ing people. Add to this muskrats, rabbits, beavers, badgers, and martens, not how- 
ever destructive, as with us, to eggs and hens."-A Relation of the Colony of the Lord 
Baron of Baltimore, in Maryland, near Virginia, <fc. (Force's Coll. Hist. Tracts, Vol. IV, 
No. 12, pp. 6, 7.) 
In "A Perfect Description of Virginia," printed in London in 1649, is given a list of 
" Beasts, great and small as followeth : above 20 severall kinds," including all the larger 
species, but no reference is made to the buffalo.-Force's Coll. Hist. Tracts, Vol. II, No. 
8, p. 16. 
In an "Account of Virginia in Generali, but particularly Carolana, which comprehends 
Roanoak and the southern parts of Virginia," printed in 1650, it is said, " Nor is the 
Land any lesse provided of native Flesh, Elkes bigger then Oxen, whose hide is ad- 
mirable Bufie, flesh excellent, and may be made, if kept domesticke, as useful for draught 
and carriage as Oxen. Deere in a numerous abundance, and delicate Venison, Racoones, 
Hares, Conyes, Bevers, Squirrel], Beares, all of a delightfull nourishment for food, and 
their Furres rich, warme, and convenient for clothing and Merchandise."-Force's 
Coll. Hist. Tracts, Vol. Ill, No. 11, pp. 11, 12. 
Clayton, in his very detailed account of the natural products of Virginia, written in 
1688, says, " There were neither Horses, Bulls, Cows, Sheep, or Swine, in all the Country, 
before the coming of the English, as I have heard, and have much reason to believe. 
. . . . Wild Bulls and Coivs there are now in the uninhabited Parts, but such only 
as have been bred from some that have strayed, and become wild, and have propagated 
their kind, and are difficult to be shot, having a great Acuteness of Smelling."-Force's 
Coll. Hist. Tracts, Vol. HI, No. 12, p. 35. 
This leads to the inference that the frequent allusions to wild hulls and wild cows in 
the early accounts of Virginia, etc., often really refer to domestic cattle that had run 
wild. 
Many citations of a similar character might be added, containing curious and inter- 
esting descriptions of the " beasts," but none of the enumerations include the buffalo. 
As these descriptions of the country and its products were mostly prepared for the 
purpose of encouraging emigration, it is not presumable that so important an animal 
as the buffalo would have been omitted if these early writers had ever heard of it as 
existing in any part of the countries they describe. 
* The Land Travels of David Ingram and others in the years 1568-'69. From the Rio 
de Minas in the Gulph of Mexico to Cape Breton in Acadia. Edited from the original 
MS. (Sloane MSS., Mas. Brit., No. 1447, ff. 1-18) by P. C. J. Weston, in Doc. connected 
■with the Hist, of S. Carolina. London, 1856, p. 14. 480 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Champlain, as early as 1G04, ascended the St. Lawrence River nearly 
to Lake Ontario, and although he obtained from the Indians quite dis- 
tinct accounts of Lakes Ontario and Erie, and of the Copper Mines of 
Lake Superior, he seems not to have learned anything respecting the 
buffalo. The animal which he describes as the " Orignac" or " Original " 
is without doubt the moose. lie mentions it as an animal " which is like 
an Ox,"* and Purchas in his marginal notes, adds, "Orignac, a beast 
like an oxe." He first met with it at the mouth of the Saguenay, and 
later encountered it among the animals he found at the mouth of the 
Richelieu, speaking of it as the " Orignac," and Purchas again adds, 
" Orignas are before said to bee like oxen, perhaps Buffes. Lescarbot, 
[says] that Orignacs are Ellans,'A-the French term for the moose. The 
name "orignac" or "original" of the early French explorers appears 
to have been applied indifferently to both the moose (Alces malchis) and 
the elk (Cervus canadensis), but never to the buffalo. Champlain, in 
speaking of the game he found about Lake Champlain, makes no refer- 
ence to the buffalo, neither do any of the subsequent writers of the 
seventeenth century. In regard to the "Ellans," we find in Lescarbot's 
account the following: "The winter being come, the Savages of the 
Conn trey did assemble themselves from farre to Port Royall, for to trircke 
with the Frenchmen for such things as they had. some bringing Beavers 
skins and Otters .... and also Ellans or Stagges, whereof good 
buffe be made." J We thus see that the term buffe was also applied to 
the products of the elk and moose. Charlevoix's description of the 
Original, however, is strictly applicable to the moose, and to no other 
animal. Charlevoix says : " What they here [in Canada] call the Orig- 
inal, is what in Germany, Poland and Muscovy, they call the Elk, or 
Great BeastIts Horns are not less long than those of a 
Hart, and much wider. They are flat and forked like those of a Deer, 
and are renewed every Year."§ 
Hennepin ascended the St. Lawrence and crossed the lakes to the 
prairies of Indiana and Illinois in 1G79-80, but Hennepin in his narra- 
tive of his travels does not speak of meeting with the buffalo until he 
had reached the Illinois River in December, 1679.|| In his account of 
the productions of Canada, he says, " There are to be had Skins of Elks, 
or Orignaux, as they are called in Canada, of the white Wolf or Lynx, 
of black Foxes, .... of common Foxes, Otters, Martins, wild Cats, 
wild Goats, Harts, Porcupines," etc.fl In the account he has given of 
his travels he describes the buffalo with such particularity** as to leave 
no doubt that if he had met with or known of the occurrence of the 
buffalo in what is now known as Canada, he would not have failed to 
enumerate it among the products of that country. 
In 17G3 Marquette passed up the St. Lawrence, and through the 
Great Lakes to the Mississippi Valley, by way of Lake Michigan and 
the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, but he appears not to have met with 
the buffalo till he reached the Wisconsin River.tt 
Charlevoix, who traversed the same country in 1720, and who has 
left us in his letters a full account of his journey up the St. Lawrence, 
* Purchas, Pilgrims, Vol. IV, p. 1607. 
t Ibid., p. 1613. 
t Purchas, Pilgrims, Vol. IV, p. 1613. 
§ Letters to the Dutchess of Lesdiguieres, Goadby's English Ed., London, 1763, p. 64. 
|j New Discovery of a great Country in America, English Ed., 1698, p. 90. 
II Voyage into North America, English Ed., 1679, pp. 136,137. 
** New Discovery, etc., p. 91. 
tt An Account of the Discovery of some new Countries and Nations in N. America in 
1673. Translation in French's Hist. Coll. La., Part II, pp. 279-297. ALLEN. ] 
FORMER GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
481 
and thence westward through Lakes Ontario and Erie, only heard of 
their existence on the southern shore of Lake Erie, he himself coasting 
along the northern shore. Concerning the game of the country border- 
ing Lake Erie he says, " Water-fowl swarmed everywhere: I cannot 
say there is such Plenty of Game in the Woods, but I know that on 
the South Side there are vast Herds of wild Cattle."* Again he says, 
" But at the end of five or six leagues [from Detroit River], inclining 
towards the Lake Erie to the South West, one sees vast Meadows 
which extend above a hundred Leagues everyWay, and which feed a pro- 
digious Number of those Cattle which I have already mentioned sev- 
eral Times-"t He gives, however, an account of the "chase" in Can- 
ada, in which he describes the method of hunting the buffalo, but the 
locality is specified as "the Southern and Western Partsof New France,on 
both Sides of the Mississippi,"! which was then generally called Canada. 
In the account of the Voyage of Father Simon Le Moine to the coun- 
try of the "Iroquois Onondagoes" in 1653-54 we find what at first sight 
seems to be indisputable evidence of the existence of the buffalo at the 
eastern end of Lake Ontario, in both New York and Canada. In this 
account we find the following: "At the other side of the Rapid § I per- 
ceived a herd of wild cotvs || which were passing at their ease in great 
state. Five or six hundred are seen sometimes in these regions in one 
drove." fl In the " Relation de la Nouvelle France en l'Ann6e 1665, 
we find the following description of the St. Lawrence River: " This is 
one of the most important rivers that can be seen, whether we regard 
its beauty or its convenience, for We meet there almost throughout, a 
vast number of beautiful Islands, some large, others small, but all cov- 
ered with fine timber and full of deer, bears, wild cows,** which supply 
abundance of provisions necessary for the travelers, who find it every- 
where, and sometimes entire herds of fallow deer.'flt 
We have here a term (caches sauvages) employed which was often used 
by the early French writers to designate the buffalo, and also the ac- 
count of large herds being seen, which seems still further to imply that 
the animals were unquestionably buffaloes, yet the locality is one which 
was frequently passed over by travellers during the previous fifty years, 
not one of whom mentions the occurrence of the buffalo on the St. 
Lawrence, nor is any mention of its occurrence there made by subse- 
quent writers. The region is, furthermore, a heavily wooded country, 
situated several hundred miles from the prairies, and from the most 
easterly known range of the buffalo. These facts alone tend to render 
these accounts improbable, but fortunately we are not left in doubt as 
to the character of the animals here mentioned, for in the sequel of 
* Letters, Goadby's English Ed., 1763, p. 170. Dodsley's English Edition says " a 
prodigious quantity of Buffaloes" (Vol. Il, p. 3). 
t Ibid, p. 178. Dodsley's Translation says again, " those buffaloes " (Vol. II, p. 18). 
t Ibid., p. 68. 
§ This locality is just below St. Ignatius, on the St. Lawrence, not far from Lake 
Ontario. 
||"Vaches sauvages," in the original. Relation de la Nouv. France en les Annies 
1653-54, p. 85. 
11 Documentary Hist. New York, Vol. I, p. 31. 
** " Vaches sauvages." Relation de la Nouv. France en I'annde 1665, pp. 49, 50. Mr. 
J. G. Shea also observes: " The animal called by the Canadian French vache sauvage 
was the American elk, or moose," and cites Boucher (Hist. Nat. du .Canada) as author- 
ity. " Boucher," says Shea, " expressly states that the buffaloes were found only in 
the Ottawa country, that is, in the far West, while the vache sauvage, or original, and 
the ane sauvage, or caribou, were seen in Canada."-Discovery and Exploration of the 
Mississippi Valley, p. 16, footnote. 
ft Documentary' History of New York, Vol. I, p. 62. 
31 G s 482 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Father Le Moine's Journal the following passages render it certain that 
the animals referred to were either deer or elk :- 
" 1st day of Sept. I never saw so many deer, but we had no incli- 
nation to hunt. My companion killed three, as if against his will. 
What a pity! for we left all the venison there, reserving the hides and 
some of the most delicate morsels. 
" 2nd of the month. Travelling through vast prairies, we saw in divers 
quarters immense herds of wild bulls and cows;* their horns resemble 
in some respects the antlers of the stag. 
" 3d and 4th. Our game does not leave us; it seems that venison and 
game follow us everywhere. Droves of twenty cows plunge into the 
water as if to meet us. Some are killed, for sake of amusement, by blows 
of an axe."t 
From the context we learn that the locality was but a few leagues 
above Montreal, on the St. Lawrence. These bands of " bulls and 
cows" were doubtless elks (Cercus canadensis).| 
Peter Kalm says: "Wild cattle are" [1749] "abundant in the southern 
parts of Canada, and have been there from time immemorial. They are 
plentiful in those parts, particularly where the Illinois Indians live, 
which are nearly in the latitude of Philadelphia; but further north they 
are seldom observed."§ In respect to this passage it is almost needless 
to add that the portion of Canada here mentioned is the present State 
of Illinois. 
Ogilby says: " Towards the South of New York are many Buffies, 
Beasts which (according to Erasmus Stella) are betwixt a Dorse and a 
Stag They have broad branching Horus like a Stag, short Tail, 
rough Neck, Hair colored according to the several seasons," etc. The 
animals here called Buffies, were of course elks, showingagain that the use 
of the term buffies does not necessarily imply a reference to the buffalo. 
The same writer, however, in his description of Maryland, says: " In the 
upper parts of the Country are Buffaloes, Elks, Tygers, Bears, Wolves, 
Racoons, and many other sorts of Beasts."|| What portion of the country 
may have been referred to as the "upper parts of the country" is uncer- 
tain, bat the preceding narratives of exploration, oii which Ogilby's work 
is based, make no mention of the existence of the buffalo in the region 
now known as Maryland. 
Father Andrew White, in "An Account of the Colony of the Lord 
Baron of Baltimore, in Maryland, near Virginia," published in 1G77, in his 
account of the animals previously quoted (p. 78, footnote), says: " There 
are also vast herds of cows and wild oxen, fit for beasts of burden and 
good to eat The nearest woods are full of horses and wild bulls 
and cows. Five or six thousand of the skins of these animals are carried 
every year to Saville, from that part of the country which lies westward 
towards New It is evident that this reference to herds of wild 
cattle refers not at all to the buffalo, nor even to the region of country now 
known as Maryland, but to the Spanish Possessions in the southwest, 
* The original says, " grand troupeaux de bceufs & de vaches sauvages."-Rel. etc., 
1653-54, p. 60. 
I Ibid., pp. 43, 44. Translated from Relation de la Nouv. France, 1653-54, pp. 95, 
96. 
t Hunters, both in Northern New England and in the West, commonly speak of the 
male moose and elk as " bull moose " and " bull elk," and the females as " cow moose " 
and " cow elk." 
§ Kalin's Travels in N. America, Forster's Translation, Vol. Ill, p. 60. 
|| Ogilby's America, pp. 172, 196 (London, 1681). 
1JTranslation of Father White's f'Account," in Force's Coll. Hist. Tracts, Vol. IV, 
No. 12, pp. 6, 7. ALLEN.] 
FORMER GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
483 
whence the exportation of hides of the domestic cattle to Spain had 
long before begun.* 
Professor E. D. Cope,+ however, recently says: "Of the ruminants [of 
Maryland], the bison (Bos americanus) and the elk (Cervus canadensis), 
the largest known of the true deer, have been destroyed by human 
agency," implying their former existence in that State. On inquiry of 
Professor Cope for the grounds of such an inf erence he states J that he 
has found their unfossilized bones in superficial deposits in Virginia, 
and adds: "I think, but will not now assert, from more northern local- 
In Salmon's "Present State of Virginia," printed in 1737, we read 
that Sir William Berkeley sent (apparently about 1733) a small party of 
" about fourteen English and as many Indians, under the command of 
Captain Henry Batt," to explore the country to the westward of the 
settlements in Virginia. • "They set out together," says Salmon, "from 
Appomattox, and in Seven Days March reach'd the Foot of the Mountains. 
The Mountains they first arriv'd at were not extraordinary high or 
steep, but after they had pass'd the first Ridge they encounter'd others 
that seem'd to reach the Clouds, and were so perpendicular and full of 
Precipices, that sometimes in a whole Day's March they could not travel 
three miles in a direct Line. In other Places they found large level 
Plains and fine Savanna's three or four Miles wide, in which were an 
infinite quantity of Turkies, Deer, Elks, and Buffaloes, so gentle and 
undisturbed that they had no Fear at the Appearance of the Men, but 
would suffer them to come almost within Reach of their Hands."|| This 
account shows that buffaloes were not seen by the explorers till they 
entered the mountains and encountered the herds that extended east- 
ward from the valleys of West Virginia. 
Another reference to the supposed occurrence of the buffalo on the 
eastern slope of the Allegbanies is the discovery by Sir Samuel Argoll 
of " Shag-haired Oxen" in Virginia. In his letter to "Master Nicholas 
Hawes (written June, 1C13"), as given by Purchas, Sir Samuel says: .... 
"[I] returned my self with the ship into Pembrook River, and so discov- 
ered to the head of it, which is about G5. leagues into the Land, and nav- 
igable for any ship. And then marching into the Countrie, I found great 
store of Cattle as big as Kine, of which, the Indians that were my guides, 
killed a couple which wee found to be very good and wholesome meate, 
and are very easie to be killed, in regard they are heavy, slow, and not so 
wild as other beasts of the wildernesse."fl Purchas also says, in his 
" Virginias Verger, or Discourse on Virginia," in enumerating the ani- 
mals of Virginia, " I might adde Shag haired oxen, seen by Sir Samuel 
Argoll." 
The " Pembrook," or " Peubrooke" mentioned in Argoil's account, 
has generally been considered as the " Patowomeck," or one of its 
* See Clavigero's History of Mexico, Cullen's English Translation, Vol. II, p. 308» 
where Clavigero states, on the authority of Acosta, that in 1587 sixty-four thousand 
three hundred and fifty ox hides were taken to Spain, so rapidly bad the domestic cat- 
tle increased in Mexico. 
1 New Top. Map of Maryland, p. 16,1873. 
t In a letter dated December 22, 1875. 
§ In this connection I may add that 1 have examined remains from the banks of the 
Susquehanna, and other localities in Maryland, some partly fossilized and others nearly 
unchanged, which though collected for bison remains proved to be those of domestic 
cattle. 
|| Salmon (T.), The Present State of Virginia, p. 14 (London, 1737). 
IT Purchas, Vol. IV, p; 1765. 484 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
affluents, but it was, I think, unquestionably the James.* The region 
visited by Captain Batt must have also been somewhere on the head- 
waters of the James. There is still traditional evidence that buffaloes 
formerly passed eastward from the head-waters of the Great Kanawha, 
in West Virginia, to this region. Professor Shaler, being aware of the 
existence of such names as " Buffalo Springs" and 11 Buffalo Ford," in 
the region of Amherst, Bath, and Pocahontas Counties, Virginia, has 
made successful effort to ascertain whether they indicated the former 
presence there of buffaloes. In answer to his inquiries respecting the 
matter, Mr. C. W. Pritchett has kindly sent him the following import- 
ant information. Mr. Pritchett says that the " old men" of that country 
affirm " that the Buffalo Springs were so named from a Salt Lick near 
by of that name, to which their fathers were guided by the buffalo trails. 
The tradition is abundant and easily verified, that buffalo and elk were 
numerous in that part of Virginia within a period comparatively recent. 
These traditions are especially abundant in Bath and Pocahontas Coun- 
ties, lying between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies. On the Cow 
Pasture River (which with the Jackson forms the James) in Bath County, 
a few miles below the Blowing Cave and Wallawhatoola Springs (Indian 
names for Crooked River) is a salt lick, near which they still show the 
deep-worn trail of the buffalo, at the point where they crossed the river, 
still called Buffalo FordThere are men still living there 
whose fathers and grandfathers saw the buffalo, and even, in one in- 
stance, caught and domesticated them."! In corroboration of the above 
important statements, Mr. Pritchett refers to a number of the descend- 
ants of the first settlers of the region in question as being ready to 
vouch for his statements. The localities he mentions are all well up in 
the mountains, beyond the Blue Ridge, Pocahontas County being wholly 
west of the divide, on the Greenbrier River. Bath County adjoins it on 
the east, and embraces the extreme upper tributaries of the James. 
These counties are the ones referred to by Mr. Pritchett as those -where 
the evidence of the former presence of the buffalo is still " abundant." 
Amherst County is some distance lower down the James, and if the 
name " Buffalo Springs," in that county, is to be considered as satisfac- 
tory evidence of the former existence there of the buffalo, these animals 
must have at times wandered to some distance down the James, as far 
at least as the Blue Ridge. Watson, in his " Annals of Philadelphia, 
says: " The latest mention of buffaloes nearest to our region of country 
is mentioned in 1730, when a gentleman from the Shauadore, Va., saw 
there a buffalo killed of 1,400 pounds, and several others camein a drove 
at the same time." This was probably a wandering herd from the region 
of the Upper James River. 
There are also reasons for supposing that the buffalo at times crossed 
through the low valleys of the Alleghanies in Central Pennsylvania to 
the Atlantic slope. Professor Baird has reported the occurrence of its 
* The "Patowomeck" mentioned by Argoll (or Argali) is evidently the Indian chief 
of that name, and not the river " Patowomeck." Purchas, in his marginal notes to 
Argoli's letter, says, " His first voyage to Patawomec and Penbrooke River," not Rivers ; 
and again, "The second voyage to Penbrooke River." Argoll himself speaks of going 
to "fetch Corne from Patawomeck," for which purpose he "entered into Pembrooke 
River," and after obtaining his cargo of corn he " hasted to James Towne," and later 
arrived at Point Comfort. After distributing the corn he returned again " into Pern- 
brook River," and made the discovery of a "great store of Cattle as big as Kine." 
Whilst engaged " in this business" he conceived the idea of going to the " great King 
Patowomeck" for the purpose of obtaining possession by "strategem" of the "Great 
Powhatans Daughter Pokahuntis." 
t Letter to Professor Shaler, dated Glasgow, Mo., July 31, 1875. 
t The locality, though not stated, is probably Cumberland County. ALLEN.] 
FORMER GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
485 
bones in the superficial deposits and caves of portions of the State, and 
there is the traditional evidence afforded by the occurrence of such names 
as " Buffalo Creek" and " Buffalo Valley," in Union County, near Lewis- 
burg. 
Through the kindness of Professor C. H. Hamlin, I am able to show 
that such names owe their origin to the former presence of buffa- 
loes at this locality. Professor Hamlin, on writing to Professor J. R. 
Loomis, of the University at Lewisburg, received from him the fol- 
lowing in reply to his inquiries. In a letter dated Lewisburg, Pa., 
March 14, 1876, Professor Loomis writes as follows: "I have made 
such inquiries as I could. One man whose grandfather he well remem- 
bers, as well as much of his conversation, and who lived here one hun- 
dred years ago, never heard of the bison being native of this valley. I 
went to see the oldest native-born citizen of our town, who is now 
eighty-six years old. He says there were no buffaloes in his early days, 
but it was a current notion in his boyhood days that there had formerly 
beenSince writing the above I have received the enclosed 
note from Mr. Wolfe, the first gentleman referred to on the other page. 
The information, .... coming so directly, .... is proba- 
bly the best that can now be gathered up." 
In the note from Mr. J. Wolfe to Professor Loomis, Mr. Wolfe states 
as follows: " Since seeing you this morning I have had a conversation 
with Dr. Beck, and he informs me that buffaloes, at an early day, were 
very abundant in this valley, and that the valley received its name 
from that circumstance. The Doctor received his information from 
Colonel John Kelly, who was a prominent and early settler in the 
valley. Kelly told the Doctor that he shot the last one that was seen 
in the valley. Kelly received his information of the abundance of 
buffaloes from an old Indian named Logan, friendly to the whites, and 
who remained among the whites after the Indians were driven away." 
Under date of March 30, 1876, Professor Loomis wrote again to Pro- 
fessor Hamlin respecting the same matter, from which I quote the fol- 
lowing : " I sought an interview with Dr. BeckTheColonel 
Kelly referred to was a soldier and officer in the Revolutionary War, 
and was a leading man in some fight in Mew Jersey during the war. A 
small monument is in our cemetery to his memory, from which I take 
the following inscription : 'Col. John Kelly died Feb. 18th, 1832, aged 
88 years & 7 days.' He owned a farm about five miles from Lewisburg, 
in Kelly township, which was named from him. About 1790 or 1800 
(such is the indefiniteness) Colonel Kelly was out with his gun on the 
McClister farm (which joined that of Colonel Kelly), and just at evening 
saw and shot a buffalo. His dog was young, and at so late an hour be 
did not allow it to pursue. The next morning he went to hunt his 
game, but did not find it. Nearly a week later word was brought him 
that it had been found, dead, some mile or two away. He found the 
information correct, but the animal had been considerably torn and 
eaten by the wolves. He regarded the animal as a stray one, and had 
never heard of any in the valley at a later day. Dr. Beck had the ac- 
count from Colonel Kelly about three months before his death 
The Colonel also told him that the valley was wooded originally with 
large but scattered trees, so that the grass grew abundantly and fur- 
nished good pasturage for the buffalo, and that the animal had been 
from this circumstance very abundant in the valley. The Colonel re- 
peated the statement of a friendly Indian, Logan (probably not the 
native chief of that name), who said that the buffalo had been very 
abundant. He, Dr. Beck, had the same statement from Michael Grove, 486 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
also one of the first settlers in the valleyI was more par- 
ticular than I should ordinarily have been, because this is about the, 
last stage when reliable tradition can be had." 
This, of course, affords satisfactory proof of the former existence of 
the buffalo iu the region about Lewisburg, which forms the most easterly 
point to which the buffalo has been positively traced.* 
The foregoing historical evidence is sufficient apparently to show the 
improbability of the occurrence of the buffalo, at the time of the first 
exploration of the country by Europeans, either north of the great lakes 
or over that part of the Atlantic slope adjacent to the sea-coast north of 
North Carolina; iu other words, within the present limits of Canada, 
New England, or the maritime part of the eastern slope of the Appala- 
chian Highlands, northward of the present southern boundary of Vir- 
ginia. On the contrary, it seems to me that the evidence of its absence 
at that time over these regions is almost conclusive, for had it occurred 
there, there is every reason to believe that proof of the fact would not 
be wanting in the early records of the country, in which its products, 
and especially its larger animals, are so often minutely enumerated. 
We have also seen that such terms as bujfes, buffles, wild bulls, wild 
cows, wild cattle, and caches sauvages, not only do not necessarily imply 
the presence of buffaloes, but, on the contrary, have been repeatedly 
employed as the designation of both the moose and the elk. If we 
accept these terms as implying the presence of buffaloes in the region 
under consideration, we must allow, on similar evidence, that wild goats 
were found in the seventeenth century along the whole length of the St. 
Lawrence, throughout the Mississippi Valley and in Florida;! thatwiM 
swine were found in Canada at the mouth of the Saguenay River, and 
in the Middle States;! also wild horses in Newfoundland prior to the 
year 1600 ; monkeys and apes in Virginia;§ and that wild lemons formerly 
grew in Southern Michigan.|| Goat Island, at the Falls of Niagara, 
probably derives its name from the custom of calling the deer that fre- 
quented it wild goats. The name of Buffalo River {Riviere aux Boeufs') 
in New York,!] and the name of the city on Lake Erie now called Buffalo, 
are not necessarily, though probably, traditional evidences** of the occur- 
* In respect to the supposed remains of Bison americanus from the Carlisle bone- 
caves, Professor Baird, in a recent letter to me (dated May 13, 1876), expressed some 
doubt as to their being referable to that species. A re-examination of them he thinks 
■would be necessary in order to determine "whether they are of the bison, and if 
so, of which species." During my recent visit to Washington, careful search -was 
made for the specimens, but unfortunately without finding them, though they are 
doubtless still stored somewhere in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, and 
will some day be found. 
f See the various accounts of the voyages of DeSoto, La Salle, Hennepin, Marquette, 
and others, where the term wild goat is probably used for deer, but sometimes as though 
it referred to a distinct animal, both wild goats, stags, and deer being mentionnd in the 
same sentence. 
t That bears were mistaken for swine, in the following account, is of course evident: 
" Wee might see in some places where Deere and Hares had beene, and by the rooting 
of the Ground, we supposed wilde Hogs had rauged there, but we could discerne no 
Beast, because our Noise still chased them away from us."-George Weymouth's Voyage, 
1605, in Purchas, Pilgrims, Vol. IV, p. 1665. 
§ See Strachey's Historic of Travaile into Virginia, p. 36; Hakluyt Society, volume 
for 1849. 
|| " There also grow in the Strait [Detroit River] Lemon-Trees in the natural Soil, the 
Fruit of which have the Shape and Colour of those of Portugal, but they are smaller, 
and of a flat Taste, They are excellent in conserve."-Charlevoix, Letters, p. 178. 
T Supposed to be the present Oak Orchard Creek, Orleans Co., N. Y. See Doc. Coll. 
Hist. N. Y., Vol. IX, p. 886. 
** Schoolcraft, Hist. Cond. and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, 
Part IV, p. 92. ALLEN.] 
FORMER GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
487 
rence of the buffalo at those localities, since it is not very improbable, 
as will be shown later, that the buffalo formerly ranged along the 
southern shore of Lake Erie to its eastern end. 
As previously stated, there is good reason also for assuming that the 
buffalo was not found in New England, nor along the coast of the Mid- 
dle States, during a long period antedating the exploration of the continent 
by Europeans, or during the period of the formation of the Indian shell 
mounds of the North Atlantic coast, which contain no traces of the re- 
mains of the buffalo, as they probably would do if it had existed here at 
the time of their formation, since they do contain the bones of all the 
larger mammals found here by the earliest European travellers. There 
still remains to be examined, however, one supposed evidence of its ex- 
istence in New England in prehistoric times. 
Shortly after the second visit of Sir Charles Lyell to the United States, 
some teeth of a species of the ox tribe were found in a clay-bank at 
Gardiner, Maine. The late Mrs. Frederic Allen, of Gardiner, secured 
these teeth for her cabinet, where they were seen by Sir Charles Lyell, 
who took with him some of them to England for determination. Re- 
specting these specimens, and others contained in Mrs. Allen's cabinet, 
Sir Charles speaks as follows: "AtMrs. Allen's I examined, with much 
interest, a collection of fossil shells and Crustacea, made by Mrs. Allen, 
from the drift, or 'glacial ' deposits of the same age as those of Ports- 
mouth, already described. Among other remains I recognized the tooth 
of a walrus, similar to one procured by me in Martha's Vineyard, and 
other teeth, since determined by Professor Owen as belonging to the 
buffalo, or American bison. These are, I believe, the first examples of 
land quadrupeds discovered in beds of this age in the United States. 
The accompanying shells consisted of the common mussel (Mytilus edu- 
Us), Saxicava rugosa, Mya arenaria, Pecten islandicus, and species of the 
genera Astarte, Nucula, etc." * 
These specimens of supposed bison's teeth having assumed a consider- 
able degree of importance, I wrote, in January, 1873, to Professor Owen, 
to obtain, if possible, further information respecting them. In his reply, 
dated Cairo, Egypt, February 6, 1873, he says: "I do not recall the cir- 
cumstance to which you refer, and no teeth of ruminants from the local- 
ity you name were in the Palaeontological Department of the British 
Museum when the state of my health obliged me to winter here. I 
should be unwilling to accept the responsibility of any determination 
which I have not myself published, after the care requisite for such a 
step." 
Upon the death of Mrs. Frederic Allen, her collection passed mto the 
possession of her daughter, Mrs. Romeo Elton, now residing in Dorches- 
ter, Mass. Through Mrs. Elton's kindness I have been able to obtain 
the full history of the specimens in question, and to examine the three 
teeth still remaining in her collection, and which were figured by Dr. 
A. S. Packard, Jr., in his memoir on the Glacial Phenomena of Labra- 
dor and Maine, etc.t There is also a specimen from the original lot of 
four, in the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural presented 
to the Society by Dr. C. T. Jackson, with a collection of Maine tertiary 
fossils. 
The circumstances of the finding of the teeth are fully set forth in a 
written statement, or deposition, made at the time by the person who 
collected the specimens. Through the kindness of Mrs. Elton, I have 
* Second Visit to the United States of North America, Vol. I, pp. 43, 44, 1849. 
tMem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. I, plate vii, tig. 18. 488 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
before me the original document, which represents the teeth as occur- 
ring in a solid clay-bank, fifteen feet below the surface.* In respect to 
the character of the locality, and its present condition, I have the fol- 
lowing additional information from Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., in answer to 
special inquiries on this point. In a letter dated Salem, Mass., Decem- 
ber 31, 1872, Dr. Packard writes: " In answer to your other query, I 
have examined hastily the locality, but many years after Lyell visited 
this country,-about twenty,-and great changes may have occurred in 
the locality, as when I was there the high clay-bank was being dug away 
to supply a brickyard."! Referring to a suspicion I had communicated 
to him that they would probably prove to be the teeth of a domestic ox, 
he adds further: "The teeth in question may have fallen over the em- 
bankment and got mixed up in the beds. The beds containing the 
shells lie belowT, in a vertical section, where the beds containing the sup- 
posed bison's teeth would have been, but the shell-bearing beds gradu- 
ate into those situated fifteen feet below the surface." One of the teeth 
remaining in Mrs. Elton's collection was, at the time I saw it, still firmly 
imbedded in its original matrix of blue clay, of the same character as 
that enclosing the shells. 
From the above it appears that the teeth were not taken from the 
clay-beds by Sir Charles Lyell, as some have supposed, nor by either a 
geologist or a scientific collector ; that they could not have been asso- 
ciated with the fossil shells, but came from beds considerably above 
them ; and that it is not at all improbable that they rolled down from 
the surface, and became firmly imbedded in the clay. Furthermore, 
the teeth are in a remarkably perfect state of preservation, looking as 
fresh and recent as a tooth would which had had but a short period of 
exposure to atmospheric or any other decomposing influences, having 
undergone, indeed, scarcely any perceptible change. 
In the structural character of the teeth themselves there is nothing 
that positively settles the question of their identity, though the evi- 
dence favors the assumption of their being the teeth of the domestic 
ox. My first comparison of them with the teeth of the buffalo and of 
the common ox seemed to leave no doubt of their identity with the lat- 
ter, as I had no difficulty in exactly matching them in every particular, 
and especially in respect to the character of the folds of the enamel 
with teeth of the domestic ox, while there was a constant variation in 
several points from those of the buffalo. Later I have found so much 
variation in the teeth, not only of the domestic species but also of the 
buffalo, that this test of their identity fails to be a valid one, as I have 
also found buffalo teeth that closely resemble those from Gardiner. 
The weight of evidence on this ground, however, is decidedly in favor 
of their identity with those of the domestic ox.||] 
Upon the settlement of the question of the identity or nonidentity of 
these teeth with those of the bison hinges the validity of the only sup- 
* The following is a literal transcription of the document: "The teeth that I dug 
out of the clay-bank about fifteen feet below the surface; was a solid bank of blue 
clay, so firm that it was impossible for anything to have got in there, there were no 
cracks or fissures that it could have fallen into as it was perfectly solid ; there were 
four lying very nearly together in the solid clay and required such exertion to get them 
out that they could not at such a depth have got in by ordinary means. 
"George Soule of Avon. 1837." 
tMrs. Elton informs me that now the original bank has been wholly removed. 
t [A re-examination of the subject, in the light of a larger series of specimens of the 
teeth of the domestic ox, confirms my conviction of the identity of the supposed bison 
teeth from Gardiner, Me., with those of the domestic ox.-J. A. A.] ALLEN.] 
FORMER RANGE SOUTH OF VIRGINIA. 
489 
posed evidence we have respecting the former existence of the bison in 
New England, or anywhere east of the Great Lakes.* 
In addition to the original notice already quoted from Lyell, respect- 
ing the occurrence of bison's teeth in Maine, Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., 
refers to it in the American Naturalist, t and in the Memoirs of the Bos- 
ton Society of Natural History. J In each case, however, the authority 
is the same, that of Lyell, who is, however, represented as having him- 
self discovered the specimens in the clay-beds. Dr. Packard, indeed, 
speaks of the " intermingling of the bones [teeth] of the walrus and the 
bison in the same beds," but there is no record showing that they were 
actually thus associated. § 
Region South of Virginia.-As already remarked, the only well-au- 
thenticated instances of the occurrence of buffaloes east of the Blue 
Ridge is the apparently casual passage of small bands through the 
mountains from West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, into the 
upper parts of North and South Carolina, by way of the New, Holston, 
andFrenchBroadRivers.il Audubon, and Bachman state that " the 
Bison formerly existed in South Carolina, on the sea board, and we are 
informed," say these authors, " that from the last seen in that State two 
were killed in the vicinity of Columbia."!] But they have neglected to 
add the date of the capture, or the authority on which the statement is 
made. They state, however, that " Lawson speaks of two buffaloes 
that were killed on Cape Fear River, in North Carolina." Lawson's 
statement in full is as follows: " This day [Sunday, February 1, 1700], 
the King sent out all his able Hunters, to kill Game for a great Feast that 
wasto bekeptat their Departure, from the TownThis Evening, 
[same day] came down some Toteros, tall, likely Men, having great Plenty 
of Buflfeloes, Elks, and Bears, with other sort of Deer amongst them."** 
" The he says, " a neighboring Nation came down from the 
Westward Mountains to the Saponas,n tt etc. Lawson was now on the 
" Sapona River," in or near the mountains,}]: which was apparently one 
* A few months since these teeth, with Mrs. Elton's general collection of the tertiary- 
fossils of Gardiner, Maine, were presented by her to Bowdoin College, Brunswick, 
Maine. 
t Vol. I, p. 268, 1867; Vol. VI, p. 98, 1872. 
t Vol. I, pp. 243, 246, pl. vii, fig. 18, 1867. 
§ Says Dr. Packard: " The deposits of Gardiner possess great interest, owing to their 
unusual thickness, and the rich assemblage of marine invertebrates which occur from 
the lowest to the highest strata, and from the occurrence of the teeth of the bison and 
of the walrus, which were dug out of the beds at a distance of 15 feet from the top of 
the clay during Sir Charles Lyell's second visit to this countryThe inter- 
mingling of the bones of the walrus and bison in the same beds shows the great range 
both of Arctic and Temperate forms during this period."-Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 
Vol. I, p. 243. 
Again he says: " Teeth of the walrus and the bison were discovered by7 Sir Charles 
Lyell in the clay-beds of Gardiner, Maine. These are still preserved in a private collec- 
tion. The association in the glacial clays of the remains of the bison with those of the 
walrus, and the mingling of the Arctic animals and plants with those now confined to 
British North America and New England, show that the climate, during the glacial 
period, was a little warmer than that of Southern Greenland at present."-Am. Nat., 
Vol. I, p. 268, footnote. 
|| Gallatin says: " The gap through which they [the buffaloes] passed to the Atlantic 
rivers is undoubtedly that of moderate elevation and gentle ascent, which divides a 
northeastern source of the Roanoke from the Great Kenawha, called the New River, 
and through which the State of Virginia is now attempting to open a communication 
from James River to the Ohio."-Trans. Am. Ethnological Soc., Vol. II, p. li. 
H Quadrupeds North America, Vol. II, p. 55. 
** History of Carolina, p. 48 (Loudon, 1718). 
tt Ibid., p. 47. 
it A rude map of North and South Carolina accompanies his journal, but on the map 
the word Saponas does not occur. The context, however, shows that he was in the 490 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
of the sources of the Cape Fear River. The journey here described 
commenced at Charleston. He travelled near the coast till he reached 
the Santee River, and then ascended that river as far, apparently, as 
Columbia, then turning northeastward, he kept in the highlands, cross- 
ing the sources of the Cape Fear, and thence eastward to the " Pamti- 
cough " River and the English settlements. In his preface he says: 
" Having spent most of my Time, during my eight Years Abode in Caro- 
lina, in travelling; I not only survey'd the Sea-Coast, and those Parts 
which are already inhabited by the Christians, but likewise view'd a 
spatious Tract of Land lying betwixt the Inhabitants and the Ledges of 
Mountains, from whence our noblest Rivers have their Rise, running to- 
ward the Ocean, where they water as pleasant a Country as any in 
Europe ; the Discovery of which being never yet made publick, I have, 
in the followiug Sheets, given you a faithful Account thereof, wherein I 
have laid down every thing with Impartiality and Truth." But in the 
narrative of his travels he makes no further allusion to the buffalo, and 
does not appear to have found the Indians in possession of either its 
skins or meat. He speaks, however, of the various kinds of game he 
daily met with, and especially of the abundance of turkeys. In his 
chapter on the "Natural History of Carolina," concerning which he 
says, " I have been very exact, and for Method's Sake rang'd each 
Species under its distinct and proper Head," he again speaks of the 
buffalo, as follows: " The Buffalo is a wild Beast of America, which has 
a Bunch on his Back, as the Cattle of St. Lawrence are said to have. 
He seldom appears amongst the English Inhabitants, his chief Haunt 
being in the Land of Messiasippi, which is, for the most part, a plain 
Country ; yet I have known some killed on the hilly Part of Cape Fair 
River, they passing the Ledges of vast Mountains from the said Messia- 
sippi, before they can come near us."* 
From Lawson's eight years' residence, and extensive travels in the 
Carolinas, about the year 1700, and from his mentioning only the in- 
stance of its capture by the Indians above cited, it was evidently not 
at that time numerous in the Carolinas, t A few years after the publi- 
cation of Lawson's work, this same region was visited by John Brickell, 
who passed through nearly the same districts as those traversed by 
Lawson. Brickell wrote concerning the buffalo as follows ; " The 
felo, or wild Beef, is one of the largest wild Beasts that is yet known in 
these parts of America ; it hath a Bunch upon it's Back, and thick, short 
Horns, bending forwardThis Monster of the Woods seldom ap- 
pears amongst the European Inhabitants, it's chiefest haunts being in the 
Savannas near the Mountains, or Heads of the great RiversAnd 
it is conjectur'd, that these Buffelo's being mix'd, and breeding with our 
tame Cattle, would much improve the Species for largeness and Milk ; 
for these Monsters (as I have been inform'd) weigh from 1,600 to 2,400 
pounds Weight. There are a very fierce Creature, and much larger than 
an OxThere were two of the Calves of this Creature taken alive 
in the Year 1730, by some of the Planters living near Neus River, but 
northeastern part of the present State of North Carolina, on the sources of the Cape 
Fear River. Brickell says, however, in his Natural History of North Carolina, pub- 
lished in 1737 : "The Sapona Indians live at the West Branch of the Cape Fear or 
Clarendon River, which is very beautiful, and has good land about it," etc. (p. 343). 
He also says: " The Toteras are neighboring Indians to the Saponas, and live westward 
in the mountains" (p. 343). 
" History of Carolina, p. 115. 
1 Yet, in the history of Long's expedition to the source of St. Peter's River (Vol. II, 
p.flfi), it is stated that " from Lawson we find that great plenty of buffaloes, elkes &c. 
existed near Cape Fear River and its tributaries!" ALLEN.1 
FORMER GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
491 
whether they transported them to Europe, or what other uses they made 
of them, I know not, having occasion to leave that Country soon after."* 
Catesby, who visited South Carolina and Georgia some fifty years 
later, describes the buffalo quite minutely in his Natural History of Car- 
olina, published in 1743, showing most unquestionably that he was per- 
sonally familiar with it. He says: " They frequent the remote parts of 
the country near the mountains, and are rarely seen within the settle- 
ments. They range in droves, feeding in open savannas morning and 
evening; and in the sultry time of the day, they retire to shady rivu- 
lets of clear water, glistening through thickets of tall cane, which, 
though a hidden retreat, yet their heavy bodies causing a deep impres- 
sion of their feet in the moist land, they are often trac'd, and shot by 
the artful Indians"t Catesby tells us in his preface that he spent the 
first year of his sojourn in America in Carolina, in the settled district 
near the sea-shore, and passed thence to the " Upper uninhabited Parts 
of the Country, and continued at and about Fort Moore, a small Fortress 
on the Banks of the River Savanna, which runs from thence a Course 
of 300 Miles down to the Sea, and is about the same Distance from its 
Source, in the Mountains." This region, he says, "afforded not only a 
Succession of new vegetable Appearances, but most delightful Pros- 
pects imaginable, besides the Diversion of Hunting Buffalo's, Bears, 
Panthers, and other wild Beasts."! 
Bartram also speaks of the existence of a " Great Buffalo Lick, on the 
Great Ridges which separate the waters of the Savanna and Alatamaha, 
about eighty miles distant from Augusta." § Again, in speaking of the 
middle region of the Carolinas, he says: "The buffalo (Urus), once so 
very numerous, is not at this date [1773] to be seen in this part of the 
country." || 
Hewit, also, in his " Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of 
the Colonies of South Carolina," published originally in London in 1779, 
thus refers to the buffalo in enumerating the natural productions of 
"Carolina," in his description of its condition about the year 1674: 
"Numbers of deer, timorous and wild, ranged through the trees, and 
herds of buffaloes were found grazing in the savannas." 5] Keating also 
says, on the authority of Colhoun: "And we know that some of those 
who first settled the Abbeville district in South Carolina, in 1756, found 
the nuffalo there." ** 
Further evidence of the existence of the buffalo in the western parts 
of North and South Carolina is furnished by maps of these States, pre- 
pared about 1771-1775,H on which a tributary of Coldwater River, in 
what is now Cabarrus County, North Carolina, is called Buffalo Creek; 
while two of the upper tributaries of the Broad River bear the names 
respectively of Buffalo Creek and Bullock Creek. In South Carolina, 
on the sources of the Saluda River, in the present county of Abbeville, 
a swamp is laid down as Buffalo Swamp. I fail to find, however, any 
of these names preserved on recent maps. 
* Natural History of North Carolina, 1737, pp. 107, 108. 
INat. Hist. Carol., Fla., etc., 1754, Vol. I, Appendix, p. xxvii. 
t Ibid., p. viii of preface. 
$ Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, etc., 
1773-75, pp. 35, 46. 
|| Ibid., p. 46. 
Carroll's Hist. Coll. S. Car., Vol. I, p. 78. 
** Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, etc., 1823, Vol. II, p. 26. 
tt A. map of North and South Carolina. Accurately compiled from the old maps of 
James Cook, published in 1771, and of Henry Monzon, in 1775. Carroll's Hist. Coll. 
South Carolina, 1836, Vol. I. 492 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Peter Kalm, in his " Travels in North America," under date of No- 
vember, 1748, also thus alludes to their existence " in Carolina?' "The 
wild oxen have their abode principally in the woods of Carolina, which 
are far up in the country. The inhabitants frequently hunt them and 
salt them like common beef, which is eaten by servants and the lower 
class of people. But the hide is of little use, having too large pores to 
be made use of for shoes. However, the poorer people in Carolina 
spread their hides on the ground instead of beds?'* Again he speaks 
of "the wild Cows and Oxen .... which are to be met with in Carolina, 
and other provinces to the south of PennsylvaniaThis American 
species of oxen," he says, " is Linnceus's Bos Bison, /3."t 
In the verbal relation, reported by Hakluyt, of " Nicholas Burgoig- 
non, alias Holy," who spent six years " in Florida " prior to 1586, Bur- 
goignon states that "the Spaniards, entring 50. leagues up Saint 
Helena, found Indians wearing golde rings at their nostrels and eares. 
They found also Oxen, but lesse than ours?'| The St. Helena here 
mentioned was in the present State of South Carolina, and must have 
been either the Combahee or the Edisto River, though most probably 
the latter, the name St. Helena being still retained for the bay at the 
mouths of these rivers. It hence seems very probable that the locality 
referred to was the Abbeville district of South Carolina,- where buffaloes 
at that time doubtless existed. 
Governor Oglethorpe, in his " New and Accurate Account of the Prov- 
inces of South Carolina and Georgia," published in 1733, makes the fol- 
lowing single reference to the buffalo: "The wild beasts are deer, elks, 
bears, wolves, buffaloes, wild boars, and abundance of hares and rabbits; 
they have also a catamountain, or small leopard; but this is not the dan- 
gerous of the East Indies?'§ 
Francis Moore, writing in 1744, referring to the absence of the buf- 
falo from St. Simon's Island, adds that "there are large herds there 
upon the Main." || 
Governor Glen, in his "Description of Carolina," published in 1761, 
enumerates "Buffaloes" in his list of the "Wild Beasts, etc., of the 
Forest." 
Drayton, writing in 1802, also enumerates the buffalo as one of the 
animals formerly existing in South Carolina. He says, " The buffalo 
and cat-a-mouut are entirely exterminated on the eastern side of our 
mountains?'** 
While the former occurrence of the buffalo in the " upper parts " of 
the Carolinas " near the mountains " is a well-established fact of history, 
its absence at the same time from the low country near the coast seems 
equally certain. As early as 1562, Jean Ribault (or Ribaut) lauded at 
Port Royal, and explored to some distance into the interior if without 
meeting with buffaloes, as did also Hilton, in 1663, and numerous other 
travellers later, many of whom have given detailed enumerations of the 
animals they met with. While every species of mammal now known 
to exist there, from the squirrel to the deer, is mentioned, the buffalo is 
* Travels into North America, Forster's Translation, Vol. I, p. 267. 
t Ibid, Vol. I, p. 207. 
t Hakluyt, Voyages, etc., Vol. Ill, p. 433. 
Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. I, p. 51. 
|| A Voyage to Georgia, etc., p. 55. 
Il Description of Carolina, p. 68. 
** Drayton (John), View of South Carolina, p. 88. 
ttSee Laudonniere's narrative in Hakluyt's Voyages, Vol. Ill, pp. 367-427. 
H Hilton (William), A Relation of a Discovery lately made on the Coast of Florida, 
•etc., London, 1664 (Force's Coll. Hist. Tracts, Vol. IV, No. 2, p. 8). ALLEN.] 
NEVER RANGED IN PRESENT LIMITS OF FLORIDA. 
493 
absent from them all.* It was also absent from this region at the time 
when Lawson, Brickell, and Catesby explored the Carolinas with special 
reference to their natural products. In the extreme southeastern part 
of Georgia (Camden County), however, there is found a small creek 
emptying into the Santilla River, at its great bend to the eastward, 
which still bears the name of "Buffalo Creek." If this is to be takeu 
as sufficient proof of the former presence there of buffaloes, it may im- 
ply that the region was casually visited by a roving band of buffaloes 
from the region northward some time probably between the years 170b 
and 1770. As above noted, this region was traversed during the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries by several different explorers, who, as 
is evident from their writings, did not meet with or hear of buffaloes 
here. It is, however, quite possible that subsequently buffaloes may 
have occasionally wandered to Southeastern Georgia, and even to the 
northern portions of Florida. In all other cases the name " Buffalo 
Creek" proves to have had its origin in the former presence of buffaloes 
in the vicinity of the streams so named. 
The Buffalo not found within the present limits of Florida.-The buf- 
falo is also believed by some to have been found within the present 
limits of Florida, and throughout the Gulf States down to the Gulf of 
Mexico. This, Jiowever, is a mistake, mainly arising, probably, from 
the former vast extent of Florida as compared with its present limits.! 
These writers are Forbes,who as recently as 1821 wrote, "The 
buffalo is said to be among the number of wild beasts, but not com- 
monly seen" 1 Davis also says, on the authority of Bomans, that " their 
tracks have been seen as far south and southeast as the Withlacooche 
River."§ But from the context of Romans's work, and from the known 
range of the buffalo at the time he wrote (1776), he must have been 
mistaken in respect to the identity of the tracks. Romans says: 
" at the junction of Flint River and the river in the south 
extreme of this division is the head of Manatee River, between 
which and the Amaxura I saw a vast number of deer, and the marks 
of many of the hunting-camps of the savages. We found the footsteps 
of six or eight buffaloes hereabouts, so plain as to be convinced of the 
track being made by those animals."|| Professor Baird, in 1852, says, 
* Among the authors here referred to are Robert Horn (Briefe Description of the Prov- 
ince of Carolina on the Coasts of Floreda, etc., 1666); Samuel Wilson (An Account of 
the Province of Carolina, in America, etc., 1682); " T. A'." [Thomas Ash] (Carolina; 
or a Description of the Present State of that Country and the Natural Excellencies 
thereof, etc., by T. A., Gent., 1682); and John Archdale (A New Description of that 
fertile and pleasant Province of Carolina, etc., 1707). Reprinted in Carroll's Hist. 
Coll, of S. Car., Vol. II. See also Hakluyt, Voyages, etc., Vol. IV, for these papers. 
t As is well known, for many years subsequent to the disastrous expedition of De 
Soto, Florida, as claimed by Spain, embraced all the Atlantic coast as far north as the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and for more than a century after, or till 1651, extended north- 
ward to the present southern boundary of Virginia, and comprised an immense unex- 
plored region in the interior. Not till 1721 was its western boundary restricted to its 
present limits. In 1764, the year following its acquisition by the British crown, its 
western boundary was again temporarily extended to the .Mississippi River.-Monette's 
Hist, of the Valley of the Mississippi, Vol. I, pp. 65-77. 
In 1745 the British possessions in North America embraced not only that portion of 
the United States north of the present limits of Florida, east of the Alleghanies, ex- 
clusive, however, of those portions of New York and Vermont north of the 44th par- 
allel. The whole vast interior belonged to the French, and while almost the whole 
basin of the Mississippi was denominated Louisiana, or the Province of Louis, the north- 
eastern part, including not only the present Canadas, but nearly all the territory north 
of the Ohio, was called Canada, or New France.-Ibid., Vol. I, map. 
t Sketches, Historical and Topographical, of the Floridas ; more especially of East 
Florida, p. 67. 
§ Conquest of New Mexico, 1869, p. 67, footnote. 
|| A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida, pp. 280, 281. 494 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
"Theuet, in the very rare work entitled 4 Les Singularitez de la France 
antarctique,' Paris, 1557 [1558], gives (p. 147), in a representation of a 
curious beast of West Florida, a readily recognizable figure of the buf- 
falo."* The figure bears some resemblance to a bison, and the descrip- 
tion seems to clearly indicate this animal. The locality, too, is near 
Palm River, south of Tampa Bay. Thevet's work, however, is merely 
a compilation, abounding with the grossest exaggerations. . He cites no 
authority for the presence of liune espece de grands toureax" at this lo- 
cality, where certainly no bison has ever been found. Maynard, writing 
in 1872, says, "The historians of De Soto's travels speak of herds of 
wild cattle being found in Florida. They probably refer to the buffalo 
(Bos americanus), which without doubt extended its range to the prai- 
ries of the west coast."! None of the references to the buffalo con- 
tained in these writings relate, however, to the present region of Flor- 
ida, | De Soto not apparently hearing of the existence of this animal 
until he had reached the Mississippi, except in the single instance soon 
to be noticed in another connection. 
The late Professor Wyman, in a posthumous paper, also says, "The 
buffalo was an inhabitant of Florida, and it could have been no other 
than this animal which the French met with in their ill-fated retreat 
from Fort Caroline"; and he adds in a footnote: "De Challeux, the 
carpenter of Ribaut's expedition, says, ' near the break of day we saw 
a great beast, like a deer, at fifty paces from us, who had a great head, 
eyes flaming, the ears hanging, and the huger parts elevated. It seemed 
to us monstrous because of its glean! ing eyes, wonderfully large, but it 
did not come near us to do us any harm.' There is no other animal," 
adds Professor Wyman, "which corresponds with this animal but the 
buffalo, though that animal is as unlike 'a deer' as possible."§ It 
seems to me, however, that the reference is in no way applicable to the 
buffalo, and if not really a deer, the beast here described must have 
been a creation of the excited imagination of the much terrified French- 
man, having no more real foundation than the accounts of other strange 
creatures found in the narratives of numerous other early explorers of 
America,-a supposition borne out by the general character of De Chal- 
leux's account of that night's experiences. 
In the detailed account by M. Renfj Laudonniere of Ribaut's attempt 
to plant a colony on the St. John's River, in Florida, however, there 
is no mention of this incident reported by the carpenter. Laudon- 
niere says the only game found was deer, leopards, bears, etc., while 
in his " description of the West Indies in generall, but chiefly and par- 
ticularly of Florida," as translated by Hakluyt,|| he says, " The Beastes 
best known in this Countrey are Stagges, Hindes, Goates, Deere, Leop- 
ards, Ounces, Luserns, divers sortes of Wolves, wilde Dogs, Hares, 
Gunnies, and a certain kinde of beast that diftereth little from the 
Lyon of Africa."!] No allusion is made to the existence of any animal 
like a buffalo in Laudonniere's whole narrative of the fortunes of the 
French in Florida during the period embracing the founding and aban- 
* Patent Off. Rep., Agricult., 1851-52, Part II, p. 124. 
t Bull. Essex Institute, Vol. IV, p. 149. 
t Schoolcraft says that the distinction between the former and present boundaries 
of Florida "is overlooked, in reference to the buffalo in Florida, by the translator of 
De Soto's first letter."-History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, etc., 
Part V, p. 68, footnote. 
§ Fresh-Water Shell Mounds of the St. John's River, Florida, p. 80, and footnote, 
December, 1875. 
|| Voyages, etc., Vol. Ill, pp. 368-484. 
T Ibid., p. 369. ALLEN.] 
NEVER RANGED IN PRESENT LIMITS OF FLORIDA. 
495 
donment of Fort Caroline, covering a period of five years and quite 
extended explorations along the St. John's River. 
Professor Wyman also quotes Buckingham Smith as saying, in a note 
to his (Smith's) translation of the "Memoir of Fontaneda respecting 
Florida" (p. 49), "The bison appears to have ranged in considerable 
numbers through Middle Florida a hundred and fifty years ago. It was 
considered in 1718 that the Spanish garrison at Fort San Marco, on a 
failure of stores, might subsist on the meat of the buffalo." The text 
in Fontaneda's Memoir (written about 1575), to which this note refers, 
contains the following: "The men of Abalachi go naked, and the wo- 
men have waistbands of the straw that grows from the trees, which is 
like wool, of which I have given some account before; they eat deer, 
wolves, tcoolly cattle, and many other animals."* Smith in his com- 
mentary on this passage cites Barcia as authority for making this pas- 
sage a reference to the buffalo. t But I find nothing in Barcia that seems 
to refer to the occurrence of the buffalo within the region embraced by 
the present boundaries of Florida. 
Professor Wyman further cites Stow ("p. 19") as saying, "The buf- 
falo is found in the savannahs, or natural meadows of the interior 
parts," but as no title is given of Stow's work I have been unable to 
find it in order to ascertain on what authority he based his statement. 
Wyman further quotes Baird as authority for the occurrence of the buf- 
falo in Florida, but Professor Baird, as previously noticed, only makes 
the general statement that it " was formerly found throughout the east- 
ern portion of the United States to the Atlantic Ocean, and as far south 
as Florida.'" f 
The first explorers not only did not meet with the buffalo in any part 
of the present States of Florida or Georgia, but probably had not at 
this time even heard of its existence anywhere. Among these are Ponce 
de Leon, who visited Florida in 1512, landing near the present site of 
St. Augustine, and Vasquez de Ayllon, who landed, it is supposed, on 
the coast of Georgia in 1520, and again in 1525; but neither of them made 
extended excursions into the interior, and make no reference to the 
buffalo. 
In 1528 Pamphilo de Narvaez marched from Tampa Bay northwardly 
into the interior, to the source of the Suwanee River, in Southern Georgia, 
without, however, either meeting or hearing of the buffalo. De Soto, on 
the occasion of his journey through Florida, disembarked at Tampa 
Bay, from which point he made his long journey into the interior, finally 
crossing the Mississippi and reaching the edge of the plains beyond. 
His course was first northward through Central Florida, and thence 
nortwestward nearly to the site of the present town of Tallahassee, and 
then northeastward across Central Georgia to the Savannah River. 
From this point his course was again northwestward to the mountains of 
Northern Georgia. In all this long journey he obtained no information 
of any animal resembling the buffalo, only hearing of it later on sending 
out soldiers to the northward from his camp in the extreme northern 
parts of Georgia, to search for gold, who returned at length with the re- 
port that they had seen in the possession of the Indians ox-hides an inch 
in thickness, which were undoubtedly skins of the buffalo.} These facts 
* Smith's Fontaneda, p 27. 
f Mam. N. Amer., p. 684. 
t Irving's account of this expedition is as follows: He says two fearless soldiers were 
sent northward from the village of Ichiaha, which is supposed to have been near the 
site of the modern town of Rome, Ga. "After an absence of ten days they returned 
to the camp and made their report. Their route had lain part of the way through ex- 
cellent land for grain and pasturage, where they had been well received and feasted 496 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
certainly show that thebuffalo was absent both from Florida andGeorgia 
during the early part of the sixteenth century, and I have found no 
writers who claim to have ever seen the living buffalo at any time in 
any part of'Florida, or of Southern and Eastern Georgia. In the many 
enumerations of the natural productions of Florida (as at present re- 
stricted) made prior to the beginning of the present century, based on 
personal observations, the buffalo is absent from all. Romans, it is true, 
supposed he saw its tracks, but this, in the light of other contempora- 
neous history of the region, seems wholly improbable. Roberts, writing 
a few years before Romans wrote, says, " The wild animals found in this 
country are the panther, bear, catamountain, stag, goat, hare, rabbit, 
beaver, otter, fox, raccoon, and squirrel."* 
Had the buffalo formerly inhabited Florida, it seems probable that its 
remains would occur in the shell-mounds of that State; but Professor 
Wyman specializes the buffalo as one of the animals whose remains he 
had not found in the mounds of Florida, although he had obtained the 
bones of most of the other large species of Florida mammals from them, 
among which he enumerates those of the bear, raccoon, hare, deer, otter, 
and opossum,, together with those of the turkey and alligator, and of 
several different species of turtles and fishes.t If the buffalo was ever 
an inhabitant of the present State of Florida, it seems to me fully evi- 
dent that it must have existed there at a comparatively recent date, and 
for only a very short period. As will be presently shown, the buffalo 
temporarily occupied portions of the Gulf States during the early part 
of the eighteenth century, from which it was absent in De Soto's time. 
SOUTHERN BOUNDARY OF THE RANGE OF THE BUFFALO EAST OF THE 
MISSISSIPPI. 
As already shown, there is apparently no record of the occurrence of 
the buffalo in the present States of Florida and Georgia, except over a 
small area west of the Savannah River adjoining the Abbeville District 
in South Carolina. It was apparently also altogether absent from the 
rest of the Gulf States east of the Mississippi, at the time this region 
was visited by Europeans. Certainly it was not met with by De Soto 
in his journey across this region in 1540-'41, during which journey he 
explored the Coosa River from its source to its junction with the Ala- 
bama, and descended the latter to its union with the Tombigbee. He 
thus crossed the State of Alabama diagonally from northeast to south- 
west, and afterward traversed what is now the State of Mississippi, also 
diagonally, from the southeast to the northwest.}: De Soto learned 
by the natives. They had found among them a buffalo hide an inch in thickness, with 
hair as soft as the wool of a. sheep, which, as usual, they mistook for the hide of 
a beef. In the course of their journey they had crossed mountains [supposed to be the 
Lookout Mountains] so rugged and precipitous that it would be impossible for the 
army to traverse them."-Irving (Thomas), Conquest of Florida, p. 244. 
The Gentleman of Elvas says (Hakluyt's translation), they " brought an oxe hide, 
which the Indians gave them, as thinneas a calves skinne, and the haire like a soft wool), 
betweeue the course and fine wooll of sheepe."-Discovery and Conquest of Terra Florida 
(Hakluyt Society), p. 6C>. 
* Roberts (Wm.), An Account of the First Discovery and Natural History of Florida, 
1763, p. 4. 
t Mem. Peabody Acad. Sciences, Vol. I, pp. 78,80. 
t For authorities on the Route of De Soto, see Biedma's Narrative, and that of the 
Gentleman of Elvas, in French's Historical Collection of Louisiana, Vol. II, and in the 
Hakluyt Society's publications (1851), with an Introduction, Notes, and a Map by W. 
B.Rye; McCulloch's Researches; Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes (Archeeolo- 
gia Americana, Vol. II) ; Pickett's History of Alabama, etc.; Nuttall's Journal of Travels 
into the Arkansas Territory; Meek's Sketches of the History of Alabama (Southron 497 
ALLEN.] 
SOUTHERN LIMIT EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
nothing respecting the buffalo, save the report brought him by the sol- 
diers whom he sent northward from Northern Georgia into the present 
State of Tennessee, till after he crossed the Mississippi. 
According to Du Pratz, the buffalo later visited the northern and 
western portions of the present State of Mississippi, where, according 
to this author, the buffalo was abundant in the early part of the eigh- 
teenth century. Du Pratz's statement in full on this point is as follows: 
" This buffalo is the chief food of the natives, and of the French also for 
a long time pastThey hunt this animal in winter j for which 
purpose they leave Lower Louisiana and the river as he cannot 
penetrate thither on account of the thickness of the woods; and besides 
loves to feed on long grass, which is only to be found in the meadows of 
the high lands."* . . 
In his detailed account of the " Lands of Louisiana Du 1 ratz says : 
" From the sources of the river of the Pasha Ogoulas, quite to those of 
the river of Quesoncte7 which falls into the Lake St. Louis 7 the lands aie 
light and sterile, but something gravelly, on account of the neighborhood 
of the mountains, that lye to the North. This country is intermix! with 
extensive hills, fine meadows, numbers of thickets, and sometimes woods, 
thick set with cane, particularly on the banks of rivers and brooks 7 and 
is extremely proper for agriculture. The mountains which I said these 
countries have to the North, form nearly the figure of a chaplet, with 
one end pretty near the Missisipi7 the other on the banks of the Mobile. 
The inner part of this chaplet or chain is filled with hills; which are 
pretty fertile in grass, simples, fruits of the country, horse-chestnuts, and 
wild-chestnuts, as large and at least as good as those of Lyons. To the 
North of this chain of mountains lies the country of the Chicasaws, very 
fine and free of mountains: it has only very extensive and gentle emi- 
nences, or rising grounds, fertile groves, and meadows. .... All 
the countries I have just mentioned are stored with game of every kind. 
The buffalo is found on the rising grounds; the partridge in thick open 
woods, such as the groves in meadows; the elks delight in large forests, 
as also the pheasant; the deer, which is a roving animal, is every where 
to be met with, because in whatever place it may happen to be, it always 
has something to browse ori."t 
Later he says in speaking of the country further north : " But to the 
east [of the Mississippi River], the lands are a good deal higher [than 
on the present Louisiana side], seeing from Manchac [near the present 
site of Baton Rouge] to the river Wabache [Ohio] they are between an 
hundred and two hundred feet higher than the Missisipi in its greatest 
floods. . . . All these high lands are, besides, surmounted, in a 
good many places, by little eminences, or small hills, and rising grounds 
running off lengthwise, with gentle slopes. . . . All these high 
lands are generally meadows and forests of tall trees, with grass up to 
the knees. . . . Almost all these lands are such as I have de- 
scribed ; that is, the meadows are on those high grounds, whose slope 
Monthly Magazine and Review, 1839); Monette's History of the Discovery and Settle- 
ment of the Valley of the Mississippi: Bancroft's History U. S.; Irving's Conquest of 
Florida; Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the 
United States, Part III, pp. 37-50, pl. xliv; etc., etc. . . ■> 
* The History of Louisiana, etc., English Ed., Vol. II, p. 49. The original reads as 
follows: " Ce Bceuf est la viande principal des Naturels, & a fait long-tems aussi celle 
des FrancoisOn va & la chasse de cet Animal dans 1'hy ver, & on s'6carte de 
la Basse Louisiane & du Fleuve S. Louis, parce qu'il ne pent y p€n<5trer, & cause de 
l'6paisseur des Bois, & que d'ailleurs il aime la grande herbe qui ne se trouve que dans 
les Prairies des terres hautes."-Histoire de la Louisiane, etc., Tom. II, p. 67. 
tThe History of Louisiana, Vol. II, pp. 251-253. 
32 G s 498 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
is very gentle; we also find there tall forests, and thickets in the low 
bottoms. In the meadows tve observe here and there groves of very tall 
and straight oaks, to the number of fourscore or an hundred at most. 
There are others of about forty or fifty, which seem to have been 
planted by men's hands in these meadows, for a retreat to the buffaloes, 
deer, and other animals, and a screen against storms, and the sting of 
the flies. . . . Those rising meadows and tall forests abound with 
buffaloes, elk, and deer, with turkeys, partridges, and all kinds of game; 
consequently wolves, catamounts, and other carnivorous animals are 
found there."* 
On one of His accompanying maps this region is marked as "Terres 
Hautes," while the low country, or "drowned lands," of the present 
Lower Louisiana is marked "Terres Plates." Hence, when in his 
description of the buffalo he speaks of the Indians leaving "Lower 
Louisiana" to hunt this animal, he simply means that they leave the 
low flat country immediately bordering the coast and the river, espe- 
cially the low country south and west of Baton Rouge, to hunt in the 
higher lands of the present State of Mississippi, where, if we take Du 
Pratz as trustworthy authority, the buffalo must, at that time (about 
1720 and later), have been abundant. Yet when this very region 
was crossed by De Soto, two hundred years earlier, the buffalo was 
evidently not to be found there. It hence appears to have spread in 
the mean time from the region more to the northward. West of the 
Mississippi, also, the buffalo, in Du Pratz's time, extended southward 
over regions where it was not met with by De Soto or by La Salle, which 
affords further-evidence that the buffalo extended its range considera- 
bly to the southward and eastward in the valley of the Lower Missis- 
sippi between 1540 and 1720, or even between 1685 and the latter date, 
as seems to have been also the casein South Carolina and Georgia. 
It hence appears that at one time the buffalo occupied probably most 
of the region between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. On Du 
Pratz's map, however, the course of the Tennessee is very incorrectly 
laid down, as it is also on the earlier map of De 1'Isle and on maps pub- 
lished much later even than Du Pratz's, its southern bend on Du Pratz's 
map not reaching the 36th parallel, while it actually crosses the 33d. 
He seems not to have himself passed above the Chickasaw Bluffs, and 
his knowledge of the country beyond on the east side of the river was 
evidently very vague. 
The presence of " Boeufs" in the country drained by the Mobile River 
is also mentioned by un Officier de Marine, in a letter published with 
Chevalier de Tonti's" "Relation"! (the authorship of which work, how- 
ever, Tonti disowns). 
The presence of a creek in Southwestern Mississippi still bearing the 
name of "Buffalo Creek" may be considered as further evidence of the 
former existence of the buffalo in this region. 
It is to be regretted that Adair, who spent many years (1735 to 1767) 
as- a trader and government official among the tribes south of the Ten- 
nessee River, has left so little on record respecting the range of the 
buffalo at that period. In his "General Observations on the North 
American Indians" he refers to their use of buffalo flesh as food, and its 
skins, horns, wool, and sinews in the manufacture of clothing and uten- 
* The History of Louisiana, Vol. II, pp. 262-267. The last quotation reads in the 
original as follows: " Ces Cdteaux eu Prairies & ces futayes sont abondantes en Boeufs, 
Cerfs & Chevreuils, en Dindes, en Perdrix & en toute sorte de gibier," etc.-Histoire 
de la Louisiane, Tom. I, p. 287. 
t Relation de la Louisianne, 1720, Vol. I, p. 11. ALLEN.] 
FORMER RANGE EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
499 
sils, but without specifying by what tribes or at what localities. Among 
the tribes mentioned are those that lived north of the Tennessee River, 
and hence where the buffalo was at that time abundant. In an account 
of one of his journeys hementions the killing of buffaloes somewhere, 
apparently, in the mountains of Northern Georgia, in 1749, and this is the 
only allusion in his work that bears directly upon the range of the buf- 
falo. He states also, however, that " the buffaloes are now become scarce, 
as the thoughtless and wasteful Indian used to kill great numbers of 
them, only for the tongues and marrow-bones, leaving the rest of the 
carcase to the wild beasts." Elk, deer, bears, and turkeys, however, 
are frequently mentioned as affording a supply of food to the southern 
tribes of Indians, but in these statements he never alludes to the 
buffalo. 
Gallatin* gives the Tennessee River as their southern limit. On an 
old map, t published originally in 1718, and reproduced in fac simile in 
French's "Historical Collections of Louisiana (Vol. II), the region be- 
tween the Cumberland and Ohio Rivers is marked as follows : " Desert 
de six vint lieues detendue on les Ilinois font la Chasse des boeufs." They 
are well known to have been formerly abundant in the region about 
Nashville. 
THE EXTENT OF THE REGION EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI FORMERLY IN- 
HABITED BY THE BUFFALO, WITH A HISTORY OF ITS EXTIRPATION 
THEREFROM. 
The accounts of the first exploration of the region between the Alle- 
ghany Mountains and the Mississippi River show that the buffalo, early 
in the seventeenth century, existed in vast herds not only on the prai- 
ries bordering the Mississippi, but throughout nearly the whole of the 
more open portions of the area drained by the Ohio River and its tribu- 
taries. Its range eastward extended nearly or quite to the eastern end 
of Lake Erie, and throughout the valleys among the mountains of West- 
ern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Eastern Ten- 
nessee. It also inhabited the region drained by the Illinois River, and 
by some of the lesser upper eastern tributaries of the Mississippi. The 
country between the Ohio and the Great Lakes was quite generally 
occupied by them, as was that south of the Ohio, between this river 
and the Tennessee. There is less certainty in regard to their former 
occupation of Southern Michigan and Wisconsin, though it is probable 
that they also at times roamed over most of this region also, notwith- 
standing the fact that they were not found there by the first Europeans 
who visited this section of the country. Considerable documentary 
evidence relating to their former presence over the region between the 
Mississippi and the Alleghanies, together with many references to their 
extermination there, has been brought together in the following pages, 
and is presented generally in the words of the original narrators. Be- 
ginning with the northwestern portion of the region in question, we 
shall pass thence southward and eastward, giving the facts bearing upon 
particular localities somewhat in a chronological order. 
On the eastern side of the Mississippi River buffaloes were found by 
the early Jesuit explorers occupying the country from the sources of 
* "Colonies of the buffaloes had traversed the Mississippi, and were at one time 
abundant in the forest country between the lakes and the Tennessee River, south of 
which I do not believe they were ever seen."-Trans. Am. Ethnological Soc., Vol. II, p. 1. 
t Carte de la Louisiaue et du Cours du Mississippi. sur un grand nombre de 
Memoires entrautres ceux sur de Mr. le Maire par Guillaume De l'Isle de 1'Academic 
R'ledes Sciences. 500 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
the Mississippi almost uninterruptedly southward nearly to the mouth 
of the Ohio River. Hennepin, as early as 1680, met with them in con- 
siderable numbers in the vicinity of the St. Francis River, above the 
Falls of St. Anthony, where they were also seen later by other ex- 
plorers. In 1766 Jonathan Carver found them on the plains around 
Lake Pepin, he speaking of them as " the largest buffaloes of any in 
America."* Pike, in ascending the Mississippi in the autumn of 1804, 
met with the first signs of this animal about two hundred miles above 
the Falls of St. Anthony ;t and Schoolcraft reports their existence in 
the same vicinity as late as 1820. On the map accompanying School- 
craft's narrative of his expedition to the sources of the Mississippi 
River, he has marked the plains above the Falls of St. Anthony as 
the "Buffalo Plains"; and in the text he says: "Here also (mouth of 
De Corbeau River) the Buffalo Plains commence and continue down 
on both sides of the river to the Falls of St. The buffa- 
loes may never have existed in Northeastern Wisconsin, though they 
probably ranged over the prairies of the western and southern portions 
of the State. They were not met with, however, even there by the first 
European explorers of that region. 
Father Marquette does not appear to have met with them in crossing 
from Green Bay to the Wisconsin River, in 1673, nor did he see them in 
his subsequent descent of that river.§ La Hontan, in 1687, also found 
none on either the Fox or Wisconsin Rivers, first meeting with them on 
the Mississippi not far above the mouth of the Wisconsin.|| • Marquette 
first found them on the Mississippi River, in latitude "41° 28'," in July, 
1673. " Having descended the river," he says, " as far as 41° 28', we 
find that turkeys have taken the place of game, and the Pisikious that 
of other beasts. We call the Pisikious wild buffaloes, because they 
very much resemble our domestic oxen.fl Following this is a descrip- 
tion of the " pisikious," or buffaloes, and the uses made of them by the 
Indians, and he adds, " they graze upon the banks of rivers, and I have 
seen four hundred in a herd together."** Hennepin, Marest, Gravier, 
Charlevoix, and other Jesuit missionaries appear not to have met with 
it on the St. Joseph's River, nor anywhere in Southern Michigan,ft 
although they found it abundant on the Kaskaskia and further south- 
"Travels, p. 56. 
+ Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, etc., Pt. I, App., p. 53. 
tNarrative Journal of Travel to the Sources of the Mississippi, etc., p. 275. 
§ In an English translation of Marquette's narrative of his discoveries (French's Hist. 
Coll, of Louisiana, Part II, p. 284), we find the following passage. In speaking of the- 
Wisconsin ("Mesconsin") he says: "The country through which it flows is beautiful' 
the groves are so dispersed in the prairies that it makes a noble prospect"; and he 
adds : "We saw neither game nor fish, but roebuck and buffaloes in great numbers." 
Mr. J. G. Shea says: "The French word here is vaches, which has generally been trans- 
lated bison or buffalo." In this instance, Mr. Shea says, it is clearly a mistake, as Mar- 
quette and his party had not yet reached the buffalo grounds, and the missionary after- 
ward describes the animal when he meets it.-Discoveries and Explorations in the Mis- 
sissippi Ealley, p. 16. 
|| La Hontan, Voyages, Eng. ed., Vol. i, pp. Ill, 112. 
II As Henderson has remarked, " Father Marquette was doubtless the first white man 
who the habitat of the buffalo by way of the Great Lakes, although, ac- 
cording to Marquette, their skins bad been previously exported to Europe."-Am. 
Naturalist, vol. vi, p. 82. 
** French's Historical Collection of Louisiana, Part II, p. 285. 
tt Schoolcraft says, but I know not on what authority: "It not only ranged over the 
prairies of Illinois and Indiana, but spread to Southern Michigan, and the western 
skirts of Ohio. Tradition says it was sometimes seen on the borders of Lake Erie."- 
History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, Vol. IV, p. 92. It would, however, 
be quite strange if it had not at times extended its range over the prairie portions of 
both Michigan and Wisconsin. ALLEN.] 
FORMER RANGE EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
501 
ward.* Marquette, in his description of the Illinois River, says: "I 
never saw a more beautiful country than we found on this river. The 
prairies are covered with buffaloes, stags, goats, and the rivers and 
lakes with swans, ducks, geese, parrots, and beavers."! 
That buffaloes were formerly abundant over the greater part of 
Illinois is well attested. Father Hennepin, in describing the journey he 
made from Fort Miamis, at the mouth of the Chicago River, to the vil- 
lage of the Illinois, on the Illinois River, "one hundred and thirty 
leagues from Fort Miamis," in December, 1679, says : "There must be 
an innumerable quantity of wild Bulls in that Country, since the Earth 
is covered with their Horns. The Miami's hunt them towards the latter 
end of Autumn." Again he says: " We suffer'd very much on this Pas- 
sage ; for the Savages having set the Herbs of the Plain on fire, the wild 
Bulls were fled away, and so we could kill but one and some Turkey- 
Cocks." " They change their Country," he adds, " according to the 
Seasons of the Year; for upon the approach of the Winter, they leave the 
North, and go to the Southern Parts. They follow one another, so that 
you may see a Drove of them for above a League together, and stop all 
at the same placeTheir Ways are as beaten as our great 
Roads, and no Herb grows therein. They swim over the Rivers they 
meet in their Way, to go and graze in other Meadows." f 
Father Marest, in passing from the southern end of Lake Michigan 
to the Kankakee, in 1712, by way of the St. Joseph's River, says, in his 
narrative of the journey: "At last [after having passed the portage, 
and embarked on the Kankakee] we perceived our own agreeable coun- 
try, the wild buffaloes, and herds of stags, wandering on the border of 
the river," etc. § Charlevoix, in 1721, in crossing over from the St. 
Joseph's River to the "Theakiki" (Kankakee) soon found them in 
abundance. About fifty leagues from the source of the Kankakee, he 
says: " The country begins to be fine : The Meadows here extend be- 
yond Sight, in which the Buffalo go in Herds of 2 or 3 hundred." || In 
describing the country bordering the Illinois River, below the junction of 
the Kankakee, he says: " In this Route we see only vast Meadows, 
with little Clusters of Trees here and there, which seem to have been 
planted by the Hand; the Grass grows so high in them, that one might 
lose one's self amongst it; but everywhere we meet with Paths that are 
as beaten as they can be in the most populous Countries; yet nothing 
passes through them but Buffaloes, and from Time to Time some Herds 
of Deer, and some Roe-Bucks." Later he writes : "The 6th [of October, 
1721] we saw a great Number of Buffaloes crossing the River in a great 
Hurry"; and adds that they soon provided themselves with food " by 
killing a Buffalo or Roe-Buck, and of these we had the Choice."!] 
Vaudreuil alludes to their abundance on Rock River in 1718. From 
the bluffs along this river, he says, "you behold roaming through the 
prairie herds of buffalo of Illinois."** Pittman, writing fifty years later, 
describes the country of the Illinois Indians as abounding with "buffalo, 
deer, and wild fowl." ft 
* J. G. Shea, Discoveries and Explorations of the Mississippi, pp. 18,20. 
t French's Hist. Coll, of Louisiana, Part II, p. 297. 
t A New Discovery of a vast Country in America, etc., pp. 90, 91, 92. 
§ Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 224. 
I| Letters, Goadby's English edition, pp. 280, 281. 
'fl Letters, Goadby's English edition, p. 290. 
w* New York Coll, of MSS., Paris Doc. VII, p. 890. 
ft Pittman (Captain Philip), Present State of the European Settlements on the Mis- 
sissippi, p. 51, 1770. The region referred to is described in the context as being en- 
closed by the Mississippi on the west, the Illinois on the north, the Ohio on the south, 
and the Wabash (Ouabache) and " Miamis" on the east. 502 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
The buffalo seems also to have been abundant over large portions of 
Indiana. Charlevoix, writing of the Ohio River in 1720, says: "All the 
Country that is watered by the Ouabache [Ohio], and by the Ohio [Wa- 
bash] which runs into it, is very fruitful: It consists of vast Meadows, 
well-watered, where the wild Buffaloes feed by Thousands."* Vau- 
dreuil, writing at about the same time, says, in his " Memoir on the In- 
dians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi" : "Whoever would wish 
to reach the Mississippi easily would need only to take this Beautiful 
river [Ohio] or the Sandosquet [Sandusky]; he could travel without 
any danger of fasting, for all who have been there have repeatedly as- 
sured me that there is a vast quantity of Buffalo and of all other ani- 
mals in the woods along that Beautiful River; they were often obliged 
to discharge their guns to clear a passage."! 
There is further evidence also of the former abundance of the buffalo 
in Ohio, along the southern shore of Lake Erie, particularly toward its 
western end. La Hontan, in his description of Lake Erie, as he saw it 
about 1687, says: " I cannot express what quantities of Deer and Tur- 
keys are to be found in these Woods, and in the vast Meads that lye 
upon the South side of the Lake. At the bottom of the Lake, we find 
beeves upon the Banks of two pleasant Rivers that disembogue into it, 
without Cataracts or rapid Currents."]: Vaudreuil, describing Lake Erie 
in 1718, says: "There is no need of fasting on either side of this lake, 
deer are to be found there in such abundance; buffaloes are found on 
the south, but not on the north shore." Again he says: "Thirty leagues 
up the [Maumee] river is a place called La Glaise [now Defiance, Ohio], 
where buffaloes are always to be found; they eat the clay and wallow in 
it." § The occurrence of a stream in Western New York called Buffalo 
Creek, which empties into the eastern end of Lake Erie, is commonly 
viewed as traditional evidence of its occurrence at this point, but posi- 
tive testimony to this effect has thus far escaped me. This locality, if 
it actually came so far eastward, must have formed the eastern limit of 
its range along the lakes. 
I have found only highly questionable allusions to the occurrence of 
buffaloes along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Keating,|| on the 
authority of Colhoun, however, has cited a passage from Morton's "New 
English Canaan" as proof of their former existence in the neighborhood 
of this lake. Morton's statement is based on Indian reports, and the 
context gives sufficient evidence of the general vagueness of his 
knowledge of the region of which he was speaking. The passage, 
printed in 1637, is as follows: "They [the Indians] have also made 
descriptions of great beards of well growne beasts that live about the 
parts of this lake [Erocoise], such as the Christian world (untill this dis- 
covery) hath not bin made acquainted with. These Beasts are of the 
bignesse of a Co we, their flesh being very good foode, their hides good 
lether, their fleeces very usefull, being a kinde of wolle, as fine almost 
as the wolle of the Beaver and the Salvages doe make garments thereof. 
It is tenne yeares since first the relation of these things came to the 
eares of the English."5] The "beast" to which allusion is here made is 
unquestionably the buffalo, but the locality of Lake "Erocoise" is not 
so easily settled. Colhoun regards it, and probably correctly, as iden- 
tical with Lake Ontario, while other writers (among them Marcy) have 
* Letters, Goadby's English edition, p. 303. 
f New York Coll, of MSS., Paris Doc., VII, p. 886. 
t La Hontan, New Voyages to North America, English ed., Vol. I, p. 217. 
§ New York Coll. MSS., Paris Documents, VII, pp 885, 891. 
|| Long's Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, etc., Vol. II, p. 25. 
IF Morton (Thomas), New English Canaan, p. 98, Amsterdam, 1637. ALLEN.] 
FORMER RANGE EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
503 
applied this reference to Lake Champlain.* The context states that this 
lake is three hundred miles west of Massachusetts Bay, and that it may 
be reached by the Hudson River, while it is also given as the source of 
the Potomac.t 
The extreme northeastern limit of the former range of the buffalo 
seems to have been, as above stated, in Western New York, near the 
eastern end of Lake Erie. That it probably ranged thus far there is fair 
evidence. As also already noticed, buffaloes at times passed over to the 
eastern slope of the Alleghanies, near Lewisburg, Union County, where 
is a stream still bearing the name of Buffalo Creek. The earliest evi- 
dence of their former existence in this region is afforded by a map pub- 
lished by Forster, in 1*771, accompanying the English translation of 
Peter Kalm's travels. On this map a marsh called " Buffalo Swamp" is 
indicated as situated between the Alleghany River and the West Branch 
of the Susquehanna, near the heads of the Licking and Toby's Creeks 
(apparently the streams now called Oil Creek and Clarion Creek). The 
most explicit testimony, however, is that furnished by Mr. Ashe,| who 
has given an account not only of their former abundance here, but of 
their extirpation. The following circumstantial account of their former 
abundance in this region, and their sudden extermination upon the 
arrival of the first white settlers, was obtained by him from one of the 
participants in the work of destruction. "An old man," says Mr. Ashe, 
"one of the first settlers in this country, built his log house on the 
immediate borders of a salt spring. He informed me that for the first 
several seasons the buffaloes paid him their visits with the utmost regu- 
larity ; they travelled in single files, always following each other at equal 
distances, forming droves, on their arrival, of about three hundred each. 
The first and second years, so unacquainted were these poor brutes with 
the use of this man's house, or with his nature, that in a few hours they 
rubbed the house completely down ; taking delight in turning the logs 
off with their horns, while he had some difficulty to escape from being 
* Marcy (R. B.) says, " Formerly buffaloes were found in countless herds over almost 
the entire northern continent of America, from the 28th to the 50th degree of north 
latitude, and from the shores of Lake Champlain to the Rocky Mountains," and cites 
this passage from Morton in proof of its existence around Lake Champlain.-Explora- 
tion of the Red River of Louisiana, pp. 103,104,1853. 
t ''And from this Lake Southwards, trends that goodly River called of the Natives 
Patomack, which dischardgeth herselfe in the parts of Virginea, from whence it is navi- 
frable by shipping of great Burthen up to the Falls (which lieth in 41. Degrees, and a 
lalfe of North latitude:) and from the Lake downe to the Falls by a faire current." 
He adds: " It is well knowne, they [the Dutch] aime at that place, and have a possi- 
bility to attaine unto the end of their desires therein, by meanes, if the River 
of Mohegan, which of the English is named Hudsons River (where the Dutch have 
settled: to well fortified plantations alreadyThe Salvages make report of 
3 great Rivers that issue out of this Lake, 2 of which are to us knowne, the one to be 
Patomack, the other Canada, and why may not the third be found there likewise, 
which they describe to trend westward, which is conceaved to discharge herselfe into 
the South Sea [probably a reference to the Mississippi]."-New English Canaan, p. 99; 
Force's Hist. Tracts, Vol. II, No. 5, p. 67. 
t Mr. Ashe speaks of the fondness " all the animals of those parts " have for salt, and 
of their resorting in large numbers to " Onondargo " Lake to drink of its brackish 
waters, and adds that the best roads to this lake were the " buffalo tracks; so called from 
having been observed to be made by the buffaloes in their annual visitations to the 
lake from their pasture-grounds; and though this is a distance of above two hundred 
miles, the best surveyor could not have chosen a more direct course, or firmer or better 
ground." The region about Onondaga Lake was thoroughly explored as early as 1670, 
and settlements were made and a fort erected before 1705. Prior to 1738, lines of com- 
munication had been established between both the Susquehanna and Alleghany Rivers, 
but not a buffalo is mentioned as having been met with anywhere in the Onondaga 
region. Hence Mr. Ashe was undoubtedly misinformed in respect to the trail to 
Onondaga Lake having been made by buffaloes. 504 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
trampled under their feet, or crushed to death in his own ruins. At that 
period he supposed there could not have been less than two thousand 
in the neighborhood of the spring. They sought for no manner of food, 
but only bathed and drank three or four times a day, and rolled in the 
earth, or reposed, with their flanks distended, in the adjacent shades; 
and on the fifth and sixth days separated into distinct droves, bathed, 
drank, and departed in single files, according to the exact order of their 
arrival. They all rolled successively in the same hole, and each thus 
carried away a coat of mud to preserve the moisture on their skin, and 
which, when hardened and baked in the sun, would resist stings of 
millions of insects, that otherwise would persecute these peaceful trav- 
ellers to madness or even death. 
(i In the first and second years this old man with some companions, 
killed from six to seven hundred of these noble creatures, merely for the 
sake of their skins, which to them were worth only two shillings each; 
and after this ' work of death' they were obliged to leave the place till 
the following season, or till the wolves, bears, panthers, eagles, rooks, 
ravens, etc., had devoured the carcasses, and abandoned the place for 
other prey. In the two following years, the same persons killed great 
numbers out of the first droves that arrived, skinned them, and left 
their bodies exposed to the sun and air; but they soon had reason to 
repent of this, for the remaining droves, as they came up in succession, 
stopped, gazed on the mangled and putrid bodies, sorrowfully moaned 
or furiously lowed aloud, and returned instantly to the wilderness in an 
unusual run, without tasting their favorite spring, or licking the impreg- 
nated earth, which was also once their most agreeable occupation ; nor 
did they, nor any of their race, ever revisit the neighborhood. 
"The simple history of this spring," he adds, "is that of every other 
in the settled parts of this Western world; the carnage of beasts was 
everywhere the same; I met with a man who had killed two thousand 
buffaloes with his own hand; and others, no doubt, have done the same. 
In consequence of such proceedings, not one buffalo is at this time [in 
1806] to be found east of the Mississippi, except a few, domesticated 
by the curious, or carried through the country on a public show." * 
Warden also refers to the former existence of buffaloes in the western 
part of Pennsylvania, and to their early extinction there and in Ken- 
tucky.! Gallatin says: "The name of Buffalo Creek, between Pitts- 
burg and Wheeling, proves that they had spread thus far eastwardly 
when that country was first visited by the Anglo-Americans."} Further 
to the southward, in West Virginia, in the valleys of the Kanawha and 
its tributaries, as well as thence westward, the former abundance of the 
buffalo is well attested. 
One of the earliest references to the existence of the buffalo in West 
Virginia is that contained in the journal of the Rev. Daniel Jones, who 
in 1772 made a journey to the Indian tribes west of the Ohio River. 
Under date of June 18, 1772, he writes: " Went out to view the laud 
on east side [of the Little Kanawha] to kill provisions. Mr. Owens 
killed several deer and a stately buffalo bull. The country is here level, 
and the soil not despicable."§ In speaking of that part of the valley 
of the Ohio near the mouth of the "Great Guiandot," he says, under 
date of January, 1773 : "In this part of the country even in this season, 
* Asbe (Thomas) Travels in America, performed in 1806, for the purpose of exploring 
the Rivers Alleghany, Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi, etc. pp. 47-49. Loudon. 
1808. 
t Warden (D. B.), Statistical, Political and Historical Account of the United States, 
Vol. I, p. 250. 
t Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc., Vol. II, p. 1. 
§ Journal of Two Visits, etc., p. 17. ALLEN.) 
FORMER RANGE EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
505 
pasturage is so good that creatures are well supplied without any assist- 
ance. Here are great abundance of buffalo, which are a species of cat- 
tle, as some suppose, left here by former inhabitants." In describing 
the country about Wheeling (" Weeling"), he says: "The wild beasts 
met with here are bears, wolves, panthers, wild cats, foxes, raccoons, 
beavers, otters, and some few squirrels and rabbits; buffaloes, deer, 
and elks, called by the Delawares moos."* 
Buffaloes are well known to have existed on the Monongahela,! and 
throughout the region between this river and the Ohio, over the area 
drained by the Little Kanawha, Buffalo, Fishing, Wheeling, and other 
small tributaries of the Ohio, where is said to have been much interval 
or open land,| and thence southward to the Great Kanawha. As 
already noticed, there is abundant evidence of its former existence on 
the sources of the Kanawha, extending even to the head of the Green- 
brier River, in Pocahontas County, and thence eastward, at times at 
least, over the sources of the James. 
Gallatin states that in his time (1784-1785) "they were abundant on 
the southern side of the Ohio, between the Great and Little Kenawha. 
I have," he adds, "during eight months lived principally upon their 
flesh." § The following additional testimony, contained in a letter writ- 
ten by Dr. Charles McCormick, dated "Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation, 
August 18, 1844," is furnished by Dr. Elliott Coues. Dr. McCormick 
says: "I have just seen Captain [Nathan] Boone, and he promises to 
write and tell you all about it. In the mean time, he says, he killed 
his first buffalo somewhere about 1793, on the Kenawha in Virginia. 
He was then quite a small boy. He has also killed buffalo on New 
River, and near the Big Sandy in Virginia, in '97 and '98." || 
Ample evidence of the former existence of the buffalo in Northern 
Ohio has already been given; it seems to have been also found abun- 
dantly in other parts of the State. Colonel John May met with it on 
the Muskingum in 1788,fl and Atwater says, "we had once the bison 
and the elk in vast numbers all over Ohio." ** Hutchins says that in 
the natural meadows or savannahs, "from twenty to fifty miles in cir- 
cuit," situated northwestward of the Ohio River, from the mouth of the 
Kanawha far down the Ohio, the herds of buffalo and deer were in- 
numerable, and also mentions their abundance over the region drained 
by the Scioto.tt In answer to recent inquiries of mine, Mr. George 
Graham, of Cincinnati, well known as a reliable authority on matters 
relating to the early history of the West, has kindly given me reference 
to notices of the buffalo as an inhabitant of Ohio in Craig's Olden Time, 
and also unpublished traditional facts bearing upon the date of its 
extirpation from that State. 
The "Journal of George Croghan,published in Olden Time,§§ states 
* Ibid., pp. 30, 84. 
t Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc., Vol. II, pp. 139, 140, footnote. 
t Hutchins (Thomas), Topog. Descrip, of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, 
comprehending the Rivers Ohio, Kanawha, Scioto, Cherokee, Wabash, Illinois, Missis- 
sippi, etc. (London, 1778), p. 4. 
6 Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc., Vol. II, p. 1. 
||Amer. Naturalist, Vol. V, p. 720. 
Journal and Letters of Colonel John May of Boston, etc., Hist, and Phil. Soc. of 
Ohio, New Series, Vol. I, pp. 81, 83. 
** Atwater (Caleb), History of the State of Ohio, Natural and Civil, 1838, p. 67. 
ttTopog. Descrip, of Virginia, Pennsylvania, etc., pp. 11-15. 
Not Colonel Croghan of Kentucky. 
The Olden Time; a Monthly Publication devoted to the Preservation of Documents 
and other Authentic Information in relation to the Early Explorations, and the Settle- 
ment and Improvement of the Country around the Head of the Ohio. Edited by 
Neville B. Craig, Esq. Two volumes, small 4to. Pittsburg, 1846-1848. 506 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
that buffaloes, bears, turkeys, and other game abounded about the 
mouth of the "Conhawa," in 1765, as well as at the mouth of "Bottle 
River," and also on the prairies bordering the "Ouabache."* They 
were also found and killed by Washington, according to the "Journal 
of a Tour to the Ohio River in 1770," at the mouth of the Kanhawa 
and also near the "Great Bend" of the Ohio, in 1770.1 According to 
the "Journal of General [Richard] Butler," buffaloes were killed by his 
party at the mouth of Big Sandy Creek, in October, 1785, and also on 
Buffalo Lick Creek and Licking Creek the same year,| at which time 
the buffaloes were there still quite abundant. 
" In 1791," says Mr. Graham in one of his letters to me (dated " Cin- 
cinnati, April 11,1876"), " General Massie laid out the town of Manches- 
ter in the Virginia Military District of Ohio, about thirty-five miles 
from Cincinnati. This was the first settlement in the Virginia Military 
District. The woods in the neighborhood supplied game-deer, elks, 
buffaloes, bears, and turkeys-while the river furnished a variety of ex- 
cellent fish. In 1794 and 1795 McArthur § was settling a plan for his 
winter operations, when he fell in with George Hardick, an experienced 
hunter and trapper, who was never at ease but when he was ranging 
through the solitary woods. Agreeing to go into partnership for a win- 
ter hunt, they made a light canoe, procured ammunition and beaver- 
traps, and set off from Manchester, travelling down the Ohio River to 
the Kentucky River, thence up the Kentucky far above the settlements. 
Game of every description was found in abundance; deer and buffalo 
were killed for their hides and tallow. Beaver and otter were the prin- 
cipal game pursued, and were caught in great numbers. They went up 
the river as far as they could find water to float their canoe, and spent 
the winter in the spurs of the Cumberland Mountains, more than a 
hundred miles from the habitations of civilized men," returning in spring 
by the same route to Manchester. 
" The last reliable account of killing buffalo," says Mr. Graham, in the 
same letter, " is taken from the Lacross manuscripts, and partly from 
tradition from the lips of the children and grandchildren of those who 
were present. Of the French who settled at Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1790, 
but one person ever killed a buffalo. This man's name was Duteil. He 
was out Tiunting in the summer of 1795, about two miles west from 
Gallipolis, and saw a herd of buffaloes. He fired without aiming at any 
particular one, and luckily killed a large one. He was so elated with 
this feat that without stopping to examine the animal he ran as fast as 
he could to the town, and, having announced his luck, came back, fol- 
lowed by the entire body of colonists, men, women, and children. They 
quickly formed a procession, with musicians playing violins, flutes, and 
hautboys in front, the fortunate hunter proudly marching with his gun 
on his shoulder, and the animal swinging from poles thrust through 
between its tied feet, followed by the crowd, singing and rejoicing at the 
prospect of good and hearty fare. The animal was quickly skinned and 
dressed on its arrival at the town, and for several days there was feast- 
ing, as the first and last buffalo of Gallipolis was served up in such a 
variety of ways and means as none but the French could devise; Charles 
Francis Duteil remaining until his death the renowned marksman who 
* Olden Time, Vol. I, pp. 405, 410, 411. 
t Olden Time, pp. 426, 427. 
t Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 447, 450, 453,456, 458, 497. 
§ " ' McDonald's Sketches/ published in Cincinnati, in 1838, by E. Morgan, gives the 
life of General McArthur." ALLEN. J 
FORMER RANGE EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
507 
killed the first and last buffalo of all the emigrants from France who 
settled the town of Gallipolis." 
Mr. Graham adds that he has " no information that can be relied 
upon of buffalo being killed in Ohio after the year 1795 or 1796." In a 
later letter he says, "From all that I know of the early settlement and 
history of the West, I am under the impression that the buffalo disap- 
peared from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky about the year 1800." 
Its former occurrence over considerable portions of Kentucky is also 
most abundantly substantiated, as the subjoined extracts from trust- 
worthy authorities sufficiently attest. 
M'Olung, in his sketch of Simon Kenton, "taken from a manuscript 
account, dictated by the venerable pioneer himself," relates the follow- 
ing: "Kenton, with two companions, set out from Cabin Creek, a few 
miles above Maysville, apparently about 1773 and 1774, to explore the 
neighboring country. In a short time they reached the vicinity of May's 
Lick, where they fell in with the great buffalo trace, which in a few 
hours brought them to the Lower Blue Lick. The flats upon each side 
of the river were crowded with immense herds of buffalo, that had come 
down from the interior for the sake of salt; and a number of elk were 
seen upon the bare ridges which surround the springsAfter 
remaining a few days at the lick, and killing an immense number of 
deer and buffalo, they crossed the Licking, and passed through the pres- 
ent counties of Scott, Fayette, Woodford, Clarke, Montgomery, and 
Bath, where, falling in with another buffalo trace, it conducted them to 
the upper Blue Lick, where they again beheld elk and buffalo in im- 
mense numbers."* 
In an account of the adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone, published 
by Filsor, Boone states that he left his "family and peaceable habita- 
tion on the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, the 1st of May, 1769, to 
wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of 
Kentucky." Crossing the " mountain wilderness," he and his five com- 
panions found themselves on Red River, on the seventh of June follow- 
ing. Here they encamped and began to reconnoitre the country. 
Boone writes: "We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts of all 
sorts, through this vast forest. The buffaloes were more frequent than 
I have seen cattle in the settlements, browzingon the leaves of .the cane, 
or cropping the herbage on those extensive plains, fearless, because 
ignorant, of the violence of man. Sometimes we saw hundreds in a 
drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were amazing."! During 
the severe winter of 1780 and 1781, Boone says that the inhabitants of 
Kentucky "lived chiefly on the flesh of the buffalo." 
Filson says (writing in 1784): " I have heard a hunter assert, he saw 
above one thousand buffaloes at the Blue Licks at once; so numerous 
were they before the first settlers had wantonly sported away their 
lives. There still remain a great number in the exterior parts of the 
settlement." $ Again he says, after describing the salt licks of Ken- 
tucky: "To these [the licks] the cattle repair, and reduce high hills 
rather to valleys than plains. The amazing herds of Buffaloes which 
resort thither, by their size and number, fill the traveller with amazement 
and terror, especially when he beholds the prodigious roads they have 
made from all quarters, as if leading to some populous city; the vast 
* Western Adventures, p. 86. 
t Filson (John), Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky, 1784, pp. 50, 
51. 
t Filson (John), Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky, 1784, pp. 27,. 
28. 508 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
space of land around these springs desolated as if by a ravaging enemy, 
and hills reduced to plains; for the land near these springs is chiefly 
hilly."* 
Cuming, in describing the salt licks along the Licking and Ohio Rivers, 
thus refers to the former abundance of the buffalo at these localities: 
" These licks were much frequented by buffaloes and deer, the former of 
which have been destroyed or terrified from the country. It is only 
fourteen or fifteen years since no other except buffalo or bear meat was 
used by the inhabitants of this country." He was informed by Captain 
Waller that " buffalo, bears, and deer were so plenty in the country, even 
long after it began to be generally settled, and ceased to be frequented 
as a hunting-ground by the Indians, that little or no bread was used, 
but that even the children were fed on game, the facility of gaining 
which prevented the progress of agriculture, until the poor innocent 
buffaloes were completely extirpated and other wild animals much 
thinned; and that the principal part of the cultivation of Kentucky had 
been within the last fifteen years. He said the buffaloes had been so 
numerous, going in herds of several hundreds together, that, about the 
salt licks and springs they frequented, they pressed down and destroyed 
the soil to a depth of three or four feet, as was conspicuous yet in the 
neighborhood of the Blue Lick, where all the old trees have their roots 
bare of soil to that depth."! 
Other references to the abundance of the buffalo in Kentucky, at the 
time this region was first visited by the white settlers, might be given, 
but those above cited seem sufficient for the present occasion. 
The buffalo seems also to have existed in considerable numbers in 
portions of Tennessee, particularly about the salt springs on the Cum- 
berland River, as shown by Putnam's " History of Middle Tennessee."! 
This author gives extracts from the journal of John Donelson, respect- 
ing a voyage made by him from Fort Patrick Henry, on the Holston 
River, to the French Salt Springs on the Cumberland River, in Decem- 
ber, 1780. Donelson says that he " procured some buffalo meat on the 
Cumberland, near its mouth," and two days further up this river, he 
says, "We killed some more buffalo." The next day, he writes: " We 
are now without bread, and are compelled to hunt the buffalo to pre- 
serve life." § Subsequently, in speaking of the salt or sulphur springs 
on the Cumberland, apparently near the present site of Nashville, we 
find the following passages : " The open space around and near the sul- 
phur or salt springs, instead of being an 4 old field,' as had been sup- 
posed by Mr. Mausker, at his visit here in 1769, was thus freed from 
trees and underbrush by the innumerable herds of buffalo and deer and 
elk that came to these watersTrails, or buffalo paths, were 
deeply worn in the earth from this to other springsAll the rich 
lands were covered with cane-brakes; through these there were paths 
made by the buffalo and other wild animals." || 
Ramsey states that in 1769 and 1770 an exploring party of ten persons 
passed up the Cumberland, and that "where Nashville now stands they 
discovered the French Lick, and found around it immense numbers of buf- 
falo and other wild game. The country was crowded with them. Their 
bellowings sounded from the hills and forest."!] According to the same 
* Ibid., pp. 32,33. 
t Cuming (John), Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, etc., 1810, pp. 155,156. 
t Counties Davidson, Sumner, Robertson, and Montgomery. 
§ Putuam's Middle Tennessee, pp. 74, 75. 
|| Ibid., p. 81. 
IT The Annals of Tennessee, to the End of the Eighteenth Century, etc., p. 105. ALLEN.] 
FORMER RANGE EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
509 
authority, the buffalo was at one time also numerous in the valleys of 
East Tennessee. He states that in 17G4 Daniel Boone left his home on 
the Yadkin to explore, in company with others, the then unknown coun- 
try to the westward. " Callaway," says Ramsey, " was at the side of 
Boone when, approaching the spurs of the Cumberland Mountain, and 
in view of the vast herds of buffalo grazing in the valleys between 
them, he exclaimed : ' I am richer than the man mentioned in Scripture, 
who owned the cattle on a thousand hills,-I own the wild beasts of 
more than a thousand valleys ! '"* Whether or not the buffalo ranged 
formerly to the Tennessee River, I h'ave been unable to determine, 
although, as already noticed, there is pretty good evidence that it did 
not extend beyond this boundary. The existence of a stream named 
Buffalo River, near the Great Bend of the Tennessee, seems to render it 
probable that it extended nearly or quite to the Tennessee itself. Gal- 
latin gives the range of the buffalo east of the Mississippi as being " be- 
tween the Lakes and the Tennessee River "; t but he also says that it 
formerly ascended the Valley of the Tennessee " to its sources," and adds: 
" They were but rarely seen south of the ridge which separates that 
river from the sources of those which empty into the Gulf of Mexico, 
and nowhere, in the forest country, in herds of more than from fifty to 
two I have found, however, no positive reference to their 
being found anywhere south of the Tennessee. 
As previously stated, the range of the buffalo east of the Mississippi, 
with the exception of its occasional appearance on the eastern slope of 
the Alleghanies in North and South Carolina, on the head-waters of the 
James River in Virginia, and possibly in Union County, Pennsylvania, 
was restricted to the area drained by the Ohio and Illinois Rivers and 
their tributaries, and the lesser eastern tributaries of the Mississippi in 
Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was also absent from the low- 
lands of the lower portion of the Ohio River. The foregoing citations, 
however, show it to have been originally very numerous and uniformly 
distributed over the prairies of Illinois and ludiana, and also through- 
out the country immediately bordering the Ohio and its upper tributa- 
ries, as the Licking, Great and Little Kanawha, and the Alleghany and 
Monongahela Rivers. It seems to have been somewhat less uniformly 
and less numerously dispersed over the States of Ohio, the western parts 
of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and the northern parts of 
Tennessee, although it regularly frequented portions of each of these 
States, and was probably more or less abundant throughout the open 
woods and "barrens" of the two last named. Its range was hence re- 
stricted to the prairies, the scantily wooded districts, and the narrow 
belts of open land along the strdams.§ 
Its Extirpation.-Upon the establishment of the first permanent white 
* Ibid., p. 69. 
I Transactions Amer. Ethnological Society, Vol. I, p. 1. 
j Transactions Amer. Antiquarian Society, Vol. II, p. 139. 
§ The area of wooded and woodless territory is thus given by Gallatin: As is well 
known, the whole Atlantic slope " was covered with a dense and uninterrupted forest 
when the European settlers landed in Americaand the country south of the 40tb 
parallel excepting " the Barrens " of Kentucky, westward to the Mississippi Valley, and 
north of the Great Lakes as far west as Winnipeg, was similarly forested. Betweer 
the 40th parallel and Lake Erie there were areas destitute of wood, or prairies, whicl 
increased in size westward, till in Central and Northern Illinois they equalled the tim 
bered areas, while west of the Mississippi the forests were confined to narrow belti 
along the rivers.-Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc., Vol. II, pp. 137, 138, 1836. 
In respect to the former distribution of forests in the United States, see also Pro- 
fessor W. H. Brewer's map of the distribution of woodland recently published in General 
Francis A. Walker's " Statistical Atlas of the United States," Plates III and IV (1873). 510 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
settlements over this region, the extermination of the buffalo progressed 
with wonderful rapidity. Its history is a shameful record of wasteful 
and wanton destruction of life, like that which ever marks the contact 
of man with the larger mammalia. The extermination of the buffalo in 
Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 
was very rapid, this animal surviving at most points for but a few years 
after the first permanent settlements were made. In Illinois and In- 
diana it existed for about a century and a quarter after the country was 
first explored by the Jesuit missionaries, and for more than half a cen- 
tury seems to have scarcely diminished in numbers. As late as 1773 it 
was abundant on both sides of the Kaskaskia River, and also along the 
Illinois, and apparently over all the prairies of the intermediate region.* 
Later its extermination was more rapid, its disappearance here apparent- 
ly antedating by several years its extirpation along the upper tributaries 
of the Ohio. The date of its disappearance from Illinois and Indiana, 
however, I can give less definitely than that of its extermination at 
points more to the eastward. In Pennsylvania, according to Mr. Ashe, 
they were all destroyed within a few years after the arrival of the first 
settlers, being apparently wholly exterminated prior to the year 1800. 
It lingered in West Virginia till a few years later, as it did also in por- 
tions of Kentucky. Toulmin, writing about 1792, says, " The buffalo 
are mostly driven out of Kentucky. Some are still found upon the 
head waters of Licking Creek, Great Sandy, and the head-waters of 
Green River."! It appears, according to Audubon, to have lingered 
here, however, only a few years longer. " In the days of our boyhood 
and youth," says this author, " buffaloes roamed over the small and 
beautiful prairies of Indiana and Illinois, and herds of them stalked 
through the open woods of Kentucky and Tennessee; but they had 
dwindled down to a few stragglers, which resorted chiefly to the 'bar- 
rens,' towards the years 1808 and 1809, and soon after entirely disap- 
peared."! Cuming adds that all had been driven from the salt licks of 
the Licking and Ohio Rivers before 1807, while Mr. Ashe,§ an appa- 
rently reliable authority, affirms that as early as 1806 not one was to 
be found in a wild state east of the Mississippi, referring, doubtless, to 
the Mississippi below latitude 41°. Brackenridge,|| in 1811, says the 
buffalo may be said to have retired to the northward of the Illinois and 
to the westward of the Mississippi, and other writers confirm this state- 
ment.fl 
* See Kennedy's Journal of an Expedition from Kaskaskia Village to the Head- 
waters of the Illinois River, in Hutchins's Topog. Descrip, of Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
etc., pp. 51-64; also Hutchins's Topog. Descrip., etc., pp. 35, 41, 44. 
tToulmin (Henry), Description of Kentucky, p. 85. 
j Quadrupeds of North America, Vol. II, p. 36. 
§ Travels in America, etc., p. 49. 
|| Views of Louisiana, p. 56. 
V Ellsworth states, in his" Notes on the Wild Animals of Illinois," published in 1831, 
that " the buffalo has entirely left us. Before the country was settled, our immense 
prairies afforded pasturage to large herds of this animal, and the traces of them are 
still remaining in the ' buffalo paths ' which are to be seen in several parts of the State. 
These are well-beaten tracks, leading generally from the prairies in the interior of the 
State to the margins of the large rivers ; showing the course of their migrations as 
they changed their pastures periodically, from the low marshy alluvion to the dry 
upland plains. In the heat of summer they would be driven from the latter by prairie 
flies ; in the autumn they would be expelled from the former by the mosquitoes; in 
the spring, the grass of the plains would afford abundant pasturage, while the herds 
could enjoy the warmth of the sun, and snuff the breeze that sweeps so freely over 
them ; in the winter the rich cane of the river-banks, wliich is evergreen, would fur- 
nish food, while the low grounds thickly covered with brush and forest would afford 
protection from the bleak winds."-Ellsworth (H. L.), Illinois in 1837, p. 38. (First 
published in the Illinois Magazine, July, 1831, and republished in Featherstonhaugh's 
Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science, October, 1831, p. 180.) ALLEN.] 
FORMER RANGE WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 
511 
Schoolcraft, writing in 1821, says that "the only part of the country 
east of the [Mississippi] river where the buffalo now remains, is that 
included between the Falls of St. Anthony and Sandy Lake, a range 
of about six hundred miles." Sibley says that " two individuals were 
killed in 1832 by the Dacotahs or Sioux Indians, on the Trempe a 1'Eau 
[Trempeleauj River, in Upper Wisconsin," and adds, " They are believed 
to be the last specimens of the noble bison which trod, or will ever 
again tread, the soil of the region lying east of the Mississippi River."* 
Most writers, in alluding to the extirpation of the buffalo throughout 
the region east of the Mississippi River, speak of it as having been 
driven out" by the encroachment of settlements.t While a few of the 
herds may have migrated westward, it seems more probable that it was 
exterminated rather than driven out, as it appears to have existed in 
West Virginia and in Eastern Kentucky to quite as late, or even to a 
later period, than on the prairies adjoining the Mississippi. The exten- 
sion of settlements down the Mississippi River would tend to hem the 
buffalo in on that quarter, and, as will be shown later, it disappeared 
at nearly the same time over a considerable breadth of country border- 
ing the western shore of this river. 
Schoolcraft says that the buffalo " was found in early days to have 
crossed the Mississippi above the latitude of the mouth of the Ohio, and 
at certain times to have thronged the present area of Kentucky," etc.; 
from which it may be inferred that he deemed its presence east of the 
Mississippi River to have been of comparatively brief continuance. Gal- 
latin also always speaks of it as having "spread from the westward" 
over the region east of the Mississippi. Professor Shaler has referred 
to the probability of its having been unknown to the mound builders,! 
since they have left nothing indicating that they were acquainted with 
it, which is not the case with most of the other large mammals of 
the interior of the He also states that in his exploration 
of the salt licks of Kentucky he had found its bones iu great abundance 
"just below the recent mould, in a bed about eighteen inches thick"; 
but that " in the rich deposits of extinct mammals just beneath, immedi- 
ately above which traces of worked flint were also found, no buffalo 
bones were discovered." 
THE FORMER RANGE OF THE BUFFALO WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNT- 
AINS. 
The vast region situated between the Mississippi River and the Rocky 
Mountains, excepting the lowlands bordering the Lower Mississippi, is 
* Sibley (H. H.) in Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian 
Tribes, Part IV, p. 94. Major Long states that in 1822 its wanderings down the St. 
Peter's River did not extend beyond Great Swan Lake (Camp Crescent).-Exped. to 
the Sources of the St. Peter's River, etc., Vol. II, p. 29. 
tEven scientific writers speak of it as having "gradually retired westward in ad- 
vance of the migrating column of the white race of man."-Leidy, Mem. Ext. Sp. Amer. 
Ox, 1852. 
"At the time of the discovery by the Spaniards an inhabitant even down to the 
shores of the Atlantic, it has been beaten back by the westward march of civilization, 
until, at the present day, it is only after passing the giant Missouri and the head- 
waters of the Mississippi that we find the American bison or buffalo. Many causes 
have combined to drive them away from their old haunts; the wholesale and indis- 
criminate slaughter by the whites, the extension of settlements, the changes of the 
face of the country; but above all, the mysterious dread of the white man, which per- 
vades animal life in general as a congenital instinct."-Baird, Pat. Off. Rep., Agricult., 
1851-52, Part II, p. 124. 
t Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, Vol. XIII, p. 13G. 
§ See further Professor Shaler's remarks on this point already given. 512 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
well known to have been formerly embraced within the range of the 
buffalo. So well established is this fact that a special consideration of 
this region will be deferred till the former boundaries of its range to 
the westward and southward have been traced. 
Although the main chain of the Rocky Mountains has commonly been 
supposed to form the western limit of the range of the buffalo, there is 
abundant proof of its former existence over a vast area west of this sup- 
posed boundary, including a large part of the so-called Great Basin of 
Utah, the Green River Plateau, and the plains of the Columbia. It is 
probably not yet half a century since it ranged westward to the Blue 
Mountains of Oregon and the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. 
Respecting its former occurrence in Eastern Oregon, Professor O. C. 
Marsh, under date of New Haven, February 7, 1875, writes me as fol- 
lows : " The most western point at which I have myself observed 
remains of the buffalo was in 1873, on Willow Creek, Eastern Oregon, 
among the foot-hills of the eastern side of the Blue Mountains. This is 
about latitude 44°. The bones were perfectly characteristic, although 
nearly decomposed." 
The former existence of the buffalo in the Great Salt Lake Valley is 
established by the occurrence of its remains there in a still good state 
of preservation, as well as by the testimony of those who have seen 
them there. Along the railroad leading from Ogden City to Salt Lake 
City I examined, in September, 1871, numbers of skulls in a nearly 
perfect state of preservation, which had been exposed in throwing up 
the road-bed across the marshes a few miles north of Salt Lake City. 
I also saw a few on the terraces north and west of Ogden City, but 
generally in a disintegrated condition, as were all that I saw which had 
not been buried in the recent deposits about the Great Salt Lake. I 
was also informed that there is a tradition among the Indians of this 
region that the buffaloes were almost entirely exterminated by deep 
snows many years since. Mr. E. D. Mecham, of North Ogden, a reliable 
and intelligent hunter and trapper of nearly forty years' experience 
in the Rocky Mountains, and at one time a partner of the celebrated 
Joseph Bridger, informed me that few had been seen west of the great 
Wahsatch range of mountains for the last thirty years, but that he had 
seen their weathered skulls as far west as the Sierra Nevada Mount- 
ains.* In 183G, according to Mr. Mecham, there were many buffaloes 
in Salt Lake Valley, which were nearly all destroyed by deep snow 
about 1837, when, according to the reports of mountaineers and Indians, 
the snow fell to the depth of ten feet on a level. The few buffaloes 
that escaped starvation during this severe winter are said to have soon 
after disappeared. Mr. Henry Gannet, astronomer of Dr. Hayden's 
Survey, informs me that the Mormon Danite, "Bill" Hickman, claims 
to have killed the last buffaloes in Salt Lake Valley about 1838. How 
long the buffalo inhabited the Basin of the Great Salt Lake it is of 
course now impossible to determine, but it seems probable that their 
occupation must date back to a remote period, since their skulls occur 
wholly buried in the marshes about the lake, where the deposition 
appears to have been quite slow. lam also informed by Mr. II. W. 
Henshaw, the well-known ornithologist of Lieutenant Wheeler's Sur- 
vey, that their skulls have been found in Utah Lake. Mr. Henshaw, 
under date of Washington, D. C., March G, 1875, writes as follows: 
* I was informed by several persons whom I met in the Salt Lake Valley, that they 
had seen skulls of buffaloes as far west as the eastern slope of the Siena Nevada 
Mountains. These persons were unknown to each other, and their accounts were 
wholly distinct in respect to date and locality, and hence seem all the more entitled to 
credence. ALLEN.] 
FORMER RANGE WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 
513 
''The only information I have regarding its [the buffalo's] presence in 
Utah was derived from Mr. Madsen, a Danish fisherman, living on the 
borders of Utah Lake; and, I may add, I am perfectly convinced of 
the trustworthiness of his statement. In using the seine in the waters 
of the lake, he has on several occasions brought up from the bottom the 
skulls of buffaloes in a very good state of preservation. Their presence 
in the lake may perhaps be accounted for on the supposition that, in 
crossing on the ice, a herd may at some time have broken through, and 
thus perished. From him I also learned that he had talked with Indians 
of middle age whose fathers had told them that in their time the buffa- 
loes were numerous, and that they had hunted them near the lake. If 
this can be accepted as truth, it would place the existence of these ani- 
mals in Utah back to a not very distant date. I learn from my friend 
W. W. Howell that during the past season he obtained the cranium of 
a buffalo which was unearthed by some laborers while digging a mill- 
race at a depth of ten feet below the surface. This was in a broad 
canon near Gunnison. While, from the fact of its being in a canon, no 
very exact estimate can be made of the time of its deposit, there seemed 
every evidence that the soil above it had remained undisturbed for a 
long time. The lower portion of the cranium is gone, leaving the part 
above the orbits and the horn-cores intact, and in an excellent state of 
preservation. A comparison of this with a recent specimen of the B. 
americanus shows that in certain characters it exhibits an approach to 
the Bison latifrons, as described by Leidy. In size it varies little from 
the B. americanus, but in all other characteristics is much nearer the 
B. latifrons." * 
The buffalo seems, however, to have lingered later on the head-waters 
of the Colorado than in either the Great Salt Lake Valley, or the valley 
of Bear River, or on the head-waters of the two main forks of the 
Columbia. Fremont found them on St. Vrain's Fork of Green Biver, 
and on the Vermilion in 1844, t and Stansbury, in 1849, found them on 
the northern tributaries of the Yampah, and the upper tributaries of 
Green River; but the scarcity of water seemed to have forced the greater 
part of them southward. Respecting their occurrence near Bridger's 
Fork of the Muddy, Stansbury says: "As long as the water lasted, the 
whole plain must have been covered with buffalo and antelope, as the 
profusion of 'sign' abundantly proved; but as this indispensable article 
was absorbed by the sandy soil, they seemed, from the direction of their 
trails, to have struck a course for the Vermilion."]: 
They have, however, long since disappeared from the head-waters of 
Green River, and, indeed, from all the country drained by the tributa- 
ries of the Colorado. Although their bleached skulls are still found 
throughout the valleys, I was informed by old hunters whom I saw 
there in the autumn of 1871, that no buffaloes had been seen in this re- 
gion for more than twenty years. 
The best account of their range in recent times, west of the Rocky 
Mountains, and of their extermination over this vast region, is that 
given by Fremont, based on his own extensive travels and on the still 
more extended experience of Mr. Fitzpatrick. Fremont states that in 
the spring of 1824 " the buffalo were spread in immense numbers over 
the Green River and Bear River Valleys, and through all the country 
lying between the Colorado, or Green River of the Gulf of California, 
* Its agreement in size with Bison americanus is sufficient to indicate its identity 
with that species. 
t First and Second Expeditions, etc., p. 281. 
j Stansbury's Expedition to the Great Salt Lake, p. 238. 
33 G s 514 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
and Lewis's Fork of the Columbia River; the meridian of Fort Hall 
then forming the western limit of their range. The buffalo then re- 
mained for many years in that country, and frequently moved down the 
valley of the Columbia, on both sides of the river, as far as the Fishing 
Falls. Below this point they never descended in any numbers.* About 
183-1 or 1835 they began to diminish very rapidly, and continued to de- 
crease until 1838 or 1840, when, with the country we have just described, 
they entirely abandoned all the waters of the Pacific north of Lewis's 
Fork of the Columbia. At that time the Flathead Indians were in the 
habit of finding their buffalo on the heads of Salmon River and other 
streams of the Columbia, but now [1843] they never meet with them 
farther west than the three forks of the Missouri or the plains of the 
Yellowstone River. 
" In the course of our journey it will be remarked that the buffalo 
have not so entirely abandoned the waters of the Pacific, in the Rocky 
Mountain region south of the Sweet Water, as in the country north of 
the Great Pass. This partial distribution can only be accounted for in 
the great pastoral beauty of that country, which bears marks of having 
long been one of their favorite haunts, and by the fact that the white 
hunters have more frequented the northern than the southern region- 
it being north of the South Pass that the hunters, trappers, and traders 
have had their rendezvous for many years past; and from that section 
also the greater portion of the beaver and rich furs were taken, although 
always the most dangerous, as w'ell as the most profitable, hunting- 
ground. 
"In that region lying between the Green or Colorado River and the 
head-waters of the Rio del Norte, over the Yampak, Kooyah, White, 
and Grand Rivers,-all of wThich are the waters of the Colorado,-the 
buffalo never extended so far westward as they did on the waters of 
the Columbia; and only in one or two instances have they been known 
to descend as far west as the mouth of White River. In travelling 
through the country west of the Rocky Mountains, observation readily 
led me to the impression that the buffalo had for the first time crossed 
that range to the waters of the Pacific only a few years prior to the 
period we are considering ; and in this opinion I am sustained by Mr. 
Fitzpatrick, and the older trappers in that country. In the region w est 
of tbe Rocky Mountains wre never meet with any ancient vestiges which, 
throughout all the country lying upon their eastern waters, are found 
in the great highways, continuous for hundreds of miles, always several 
inches and sometimes several feet in depth, which the buffalo have 
made in crossing from one river to another, or in traversing the mount- 
ain ranges. The Snake Indians, more particularly those low down upon 
Lewis's Fork, have always been very grateful to the American trappers 
for the great kindness (as they frequently expressed it) wdiich they did 
to them in driving the buffalo so low dowui the Columbia River."! 
It would thus seem to be Fremont's belief that their occupation of the 
Snake River country was temporary, and that they did not pass west of 
the mountains till driven thither, at a comparatively recent period, by 
persecution east of the mountains. That they were absent from this 
region not long previously appears evident from the fact that Lewis 
and Clarke, in 1805, met with no buffaloes w'est of tbe mountains, nor 
* The locality at which Professor Marsh found the crumbling bones of the buffalo (re- 
ferred to on a preceding page) is some two hundred and fifty miles further northwest, 
or lower down the river. 
t Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, in the year 1842, and 
to Oregon and California, in the years 1843-'44, p. 144. ALLEN.] 
FORMER RANGE WEST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 
515 
even on the upper portion of the three forks of the Missouri, although 
there was evidence of their former existence in immense herds on the 
Jefferson Fork. In their enumeration of the animals of the Pacific 
slope these travellers make no allusion to the buffalo. They also state 
that the Indians on Clarke's River crossed the mountains in spring to 
traffip for buffalo robes with the Indians of the eastern slope.* 
In 1820 Major Long also states: "They have not yet crossed the en- 
tire breadth of the mountains at the head of the Missouri, though they 
penetrate, in some parts, far within that range, to the most accessible 
fertile valleys, particularly the valley of Lewis's River. It was there 
that Mr. Henry and his party of hunters wintered, and subsisted chiefly 
upon the flesh of these animals, which they saw in considerable herds, 
but the Indians affirmed, that it was unusual for the bisons to visit that 
neighborhood." This would seem to fix the date of their arrival at the 
head-waters of the Columbia between 1805, when Lewis and Clarke vis- 
ited them, and Mr. Henry's visit, about 1817. 
From Washington Irving's entertaining narrative of Captain Bonne- 
ville's tour across the continent t we learn that Captain Bonneville first 
met with the buffalo west of the Rocky Mountains on the head-waters 
of Bear River, in November, 18334 Passing thence northward, they 
found these animals in abundance on the plains of Portneuf, where the 
Bannack Indians were engaged in hunting them.§ But in his subse- 
quent long winter march up the Snake River, no buffaloes appear to 
have been met with. Returning, however, to Bear River Valley, he 
again encountered large herds. The following summer (July, 1834) 
they again found them in great numbers on the sources of the Blackfoot 
River,|| but in a subsequent long journey northwestward, from the Upper 
Snake River nearly to Fort Walla Walla and back, they met with none, 
and rejoiced to find them again " in immense herds" near their old 
camping-ground on an eastern tributary of the Snake River. Captain 
Bonneville's party passed the winter of 1834-35 in camp on the upper 
part of Bear River, surrounded by immense herds of buffaloes, which 
came down to them from the north. " The people upon Snake River," 
says the narrative, " having chased off the buffalo before the snow had 
become deep, immense herds now came trooping over the mountains, 
forming dark masses on their sides, from which their deep-mouthed 
bellowing sounded like the peals and mutterings from a gathering thun- 
der-cloud. In effect, the cloud broke, and down came the torrent into 
the valley. It is utterly impossible, according to Captain Bonneville, 
to convey an idea of the effect produced by the sight of such countless 
throngs of animals of such bulk and spirit, all rushing forward as if 
swept on by a In the autumn of 1835 Parker met with 
great herds on the east fork of the Salmon River and on other tributaries 
of the Snake River.** 
Dr. J. S. Newberry, writing in 1855, says: "The range of the buffalo 
does not now extend beyond the Rocky Mountains, but there are many 
Indian hunters who have killed them in great numbers to the west of 
* Lewis and Clarke's Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri, and down the Co- 
lumbia to the Pacific Ocean, Vol. I, p. 469. 
tThe Rocky Mountains; or, Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in the Far West,- 
a Digest of the Journal of Captain B. L. E. Bonneville. 2 vols., 12mo, 1837. 
t Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 125,129. 
§ Ibid., Vol. II, p. 33. 
|| Irving's Rocky Mountains, Vol. II, p. 179. 
11 Irving's Rocky Mountains, pp. 208,211. 
** Parker (Samuel), Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, pp. 
89, 107, 108. 516 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
the mountains, on the head-waters of Salmon River, one of the tribu- 
taries of the Columbia. While I was at the Dalles, the party of Lieu- 
tenant Day, U. S. A., came in from an expedition to the Upper Salmon 
River, and I was assured by the officers that they had not only seen 
Indians who claimed to have killed buffalo there, but that, in many 
places, great numbers of buffalo skulls were still lying on the prairie."* 
Dr. Suckley, writing under date of December, 1853, also says: "Buf- 
falo were formerly in great numbers in this valley [the valley of the Bit- 
ter Root, or St. Mary's River, one of the sources of Clarke's Fork of the 
Columbia], as attested by the number of skulls seen and by the reports 
of the inhabitants. For a number of years past, none had been seen 
west of the mountains; but, singular to relate, a buffalo bull was killed 
at the mouth of the Pend d'Oreille River on the day 1 passed it. The 
Indians were in great joy at this, supposing that the buffalo were coming 
back to them."! Just east of the mountains separating the sources of 
the Jefferson and Salmon Rivers, buffaloes still existed in immense 
numbers. Lieutenant Mullan reports meeting, on December 4, 1853, 
with several bands of the Nez Perces Indians returning from their hunt 
east of the mountains, with many animals loaded with meat and furs. 
"This," he says, "has been a great hunting-season with all the Indians, 
both east and west of the mountains. Hundreds of thousands of buffalo 
have been slain, and small game-consisting of antelope, deer, beaver, 
etc.-has been innumerable."! 
It thus appears that the buffalo formerly existed west of the Rocky 
Mountains, nearly to the northern boundary of the United States, and 
that they had become completely exterminated there as early, according 
to Fremont (as above cited), as 1840, although they swarmed there in 
immense herds as late as 1835. The valleys of the streams in that re- 
gion are represented as abounding in fertile prairies, and as being gen- 
erally covered with perennial grasses. As the adjoining country west- 
ward is barren and wholly unproductive of grass, it is probable that the 
buffalo ranged further westward only irregularly, and in straggling 
bands. Bonneville, at least, failed to meet with any between the sources 
of Snake River and Fort Walla-Walla in 1834 and 1835, and no other 
explorer seems to have met with them living so far west. Dr. Hayden 
informs me that a few still exist in the valley of the Gros Ventres, and 
in the extreme upper part of the Snake River,-merely straggling old 
bulls, the last survivors of former populous herds. Professor O. C. 
Marsh writes me that the last one shot on Henry's Fork was killed in 
1874. Professor J. Marcou informs me that a single old buffalo bull 
made his appearance at Fort Bridger last summer (1875), but that none 
had been seen there before, according to Dr. Carter, for thirty years. 
This solitary straggler was probably a wanderer from the remnants of 
his race still left in the valleys of the Wind River Mountains. 
Range westward south of the Thirty-ninth Parallel.-According to Lieu- 
tenant Whipple, "there do not seem to be any well-authenticated ac- 
counts of the existence of the buffalo west of the Rio Grande." He 
adds: "On inquiring how' far "west the buffalo had been seen, a Tegua 
Indian stated that many years ago his father killed two at Santo 
* Newberry's Zoological Report of Lieutenant Abbot's Report of Explorations for a 
Railroad Route from the Sacramento Valley to the Colorado River. Pacific R. R. 
Explor. and Surv., Vol. VI, Zoological Report, p. 72. 
1 Suckley (Dr. George), Canoe Voyage from Fort Owen to Fort Vancouver. Pacific 
R. R. Explor. and Suvv., Vol. I, Governor Stevens's Report, p. 297. 
t Mullan (Lieutenant John), Report of a Reconnaissance from Bitter Root Valley to 
Fort Hall, etc., Pacific R. R. Explorations and Surveys, Vol. I, Governor Stevens's 
Report, p. 325. ALLEN.] 
RANGE WESTWARD SOUTH OF 39TH PARALLEL. 
517 
Domingo. A Mexican from San Juan de Caballeros added that in 1835 
he saw buffalo on the Rio del Norte." Lieutenant Whipple further says 
that "Father Escalante, in a manuscript journal of a trip from New 
Mexico to the Great Salt Lake,* in 1776, mentioned having seen signs 
of their existence on his route;! still, notwithstanding the location of 
the famous kingdom of Cibola by the early explorers, there do not seem 
to be any well-authenticated accounts of the existence of these animals 
west of the Rio Grande." f It appears, however, that two centuries ago 
these animals were not unknown to the Indians of the Gila and Zuni 
Rivers, who obtained their skins from the tribes living several hundred 
miles to the eastward. Thus Friar Marco de Niga, in 1539, found "ox- 
hides" in the possession of the Indians living on the tributaries of the 
Gila, which they had obtained by trading with the people of the king- 
dom of Cibola ;§ the ancient pueblo of Cibola being generally supposed 
to be near the site of the present pueblo of Zufii, on the river of that 
name.|| The people of Cibola at this time not only used the skins as 
articles of dress, but for shields and other purposes. 
From the Yampah and Grand, and other tributaries of the Colorado, 
the buffalo formerly ranged eastward to the Parks and Great Plains, 
but I have found no record of their existence in the highlands of New 
Mexico, or anywhere to the westward or southward of Santa F<5. 
Coronado, during his great expedition in search of the "Kingdom of 
Cibola" (1540 to 1543), in marching northward from the western 
provinces of Mexico across Arizona to the plains east of Santa Fe, met 
with no buffaloes till he reached a place called Cicuic, situated on the 
Pecos near the site of the present town of that name,f[ "four leagues 
eastward from which place they met a new kind of oxen, wild and fierce, 
whereof, the first day, they killed fourscore, which sufficed the army with 
flesh." 
Dr. Elliott Coues, however, in his paper on the "Quadrupeds of Ari- 
zona," published in the American Naturalist in 1868,** states that "there 
is abundant evidence that the buffalo (Bos americanus) formerly ranged 
over Arizona, though none exist there now." On requesting recently 
more detailed information of Dr. Coues respecting this evidence, he 
writes if that he finds himself now unable to substantiate the statement, 
but adds, " I distinctly remember being satisfied at the time of what I 
said." I have myself made extensive inquiries of naturalists and Army 
officers who had either passed through Arizona or had been stationed 
there for a considerable length of time without being able to elicit any 
corroborative evidence of Dr. Coues's statement.JJ 
* Utah Lake, according to General G. K. Warren (see the next footnote). 
+ According to General G. K. Warren (Pacific R. R. Expl. and Surveys, vol. xi, p. 35), 
" Father Escalante, in 1776, travelled from near Santa Fd, New Mexico, in a northwest- 
erly direction to the Great ColoradoDuring this journey he was probably 
in the vicinity of Utah Lake." This route would take him across the range of the 
buffalo west of the Rocky Mountains, since, as already stated, they at that time existed 
on the headwaters of the Colorado, and extended as far west as Utah Lake. 
t Whipple's Itinerary, Pacific R. R. Explorations and Surveys, Vol. II, Part I, p. 35. 
§ See Nipa's account of his journey as translated by Hakluyt.-Hakluyt's Voyages, Vol. 
Ill, p. 439. 
|| Davis's Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, pp. 119,120, footnote. 
IT See R. H. Kern's Map of Coronado's route in Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and 
Prosnects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Part IV, plate iii. 
** Vol. I, p. 540. 
ft Under date of " Washington, D. C., May 5, 1875." 
ttDr. W. J. Hoffman, under date of "Reading, Penn., June 19,1875," writes me that 
he " found no tradition amongst any of the tribes in Arizona, by which we might infer 
that their ancestors were acquainted with this animal. The tribes visited are located 
in the northern part of Arizona (Plateau del Colorado), in the Mogollon Mts., Sierra 
Blanca, and along the Rio Gila and as far eastward as the Rio Colorado-chiquito." 518 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Extreme Southwestern Limit.-Respecting the extreme southwestern 
limit of the former range of the buffalo, Keating, on the authority of 
Colhoun, wrote, in 1823, as follows: " De Laet says, on the authority of 
Herrera, that they grazed as far south as the banks of the Yaquimi.* 
In the same chapter the author states that Martin Perez had, in 1591, 
estimated the Province of Cinaloa, in which this river runs, to be three 
hundred leagues from the city of Mexico. This river is supposed to be 
the same which, on Mr. Tanner's map of North America (Philadelphia, 
1822), is named Hiaqui,t and situated between the 27th and 28th degrees 
of north latitude. Perhaps, however, it may be the Rio Gila, which 
empties itself in latitude 32°."| 
On referring to the works cited by Keating, I find that Herrera gives 
the statement on the authority of Nuua de Guzman, who made a journey 
to Cinaloa in 1532.' According to a map accompanying De Laiit's work, 
the province of Cinaloa included the parallels of twenty-seven and twen- 
ty-eight degrees. Herrera's statement is as follows: " En la ribera de 
Yaquimi ay algunas vacas, y muy grandes ciervos -simply that many 
cattle and many deer of very large size were found on the banks of the 
Yaquimi. In the context, nor in any of the old writings descriptive of 
this region at the time it was first visited by the Spaniards, do I find 
any further statements that could by the freest license of translation be 
rendered bison or buffalo. As the only species of the deer family found 
in this region is the little Cervus mexicanus, one of the smallest deer found 
in North America, the phrase muy grandes ciervos can only refer to this 
species, and gives at once sufficient evidence of the exaggerated style of 
the narrative,-a fault well known to be common to the descriptive 
writings of those times. This obscure statement does not apparently 
afford satisfactory ground for doubting what historians have so gen- 
erally accepted in respect to the buffalo, namely, that it was first met 
with in its native haunts by Cabega de Vaca, on the plains of Texas, in 
1530, and next by Coronado's expedition in 1542. In rebuttal of this 
supposed proof of the existence of the buffalo in Western Mexico, on the 
Yaquimi or Yaqui River, during the middle of the sixteenth century, we 
have the rather weighty evidence that the other early Spanish explorers 
who traversed this region did not even hear of the buffalo till they 
reached the Gila, where they found, as before stated, its robes in the 
possession of the Indians, which the latter had obtained from the tribes 
living far to the northeastward. In 1539, for example, Friar Marco de 
Niga set out from the town of San Miguel, in the Province of Culiacan, 
situated far to the southward of the Rio Yaqui, in search of the famed 
Kingdom of Cibola. In this journey he reached the Zufii River, whence 
he retraced his steps to San Miguel and passed on to Compostella, sit- 
uated in latitude about 21°. The following year (1540) Coronado, with his 
large army, passed over nearly the same route, both crossing the Rio 
Yaqui. Niga, however, saw only the prepared skins of the buffalo, 
which was also all that Coronado saw till after he had passed Cicuic and 
reached the Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains. It is from these 
explorers and from Cabega de Vaca that we get the first specific account 
of the buffalo. It hence follows that there is good reason for supposing 
the buffalo to have been absent from the western provinces of Mexico, 
*" Juxta Yaquimi fluminis ripas tauri vaccseque et proegrandes cervi pascuntur."- 
De Laet, America Utriusque Descriptio, Lugd. Batav. Anno 1633, Lib. Cap. 6." p. 286. 
t The Rio Yaqui, doubtless, of modern maps. 
t Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, Vol. II, p. 28. 
§ Herrera (Antonio de), Ilistoria de las ludias Occidentales, Tomo III, p. 16. (Ed. of 
1728.) ALLEN.] 
FORMER RANGE SOUTH OF THE RIO GRANDE. 
519 
and from that part of the United States west of the Rio Grande del 
Norte from a period antedating the sixteenth century till the present 
time. Why it may not during some earlier period have existed throughout 
this whole region would be hard to say, since, as will be soon shown, its 
existence on the Yaqui River would not carry its range south of points 
the buffalo is known to have reached on the Atlantic slope. 
FORMER RANGE SOUTH OF THE RIO GRANDE DEL NORTE. 
Most writers give the southern limit of the former habitat of the 
buffalo as latitude 28° to 30°, believing it never to have extended south 
of the Rio Grande. There is, however, sufficient proof of its former 
extension over the northeastern provinces of Mexico, including certainly 
portions of the present States of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, 
Chihuahua, and Durango. It thus extended southward to at least the 
25th- parallel. It seems not, however, to have been.abundant over much 
of this region, and to have been mainly extirpated prior to the begin- 
ning of the present century. As late as 1800, however, Pike enumer- 
ated the buffalo among the animals of " Cogquilla"* (a province then 
extending ou both sides of the Rio Grande, and embracing a portion of 
what is now Southwestern Texas), but whether found north or south of 
the Rio Grande is not stated. The buffalo is not enumerated by Pike in 
his lists of the animals of any of the other Mexican Provinces situated 
south of the Rio Grande.t 
De LaetJ mentions the buffalo (under the name "Armenta"), on the 
authority of Gomara, as an inhabitant of Quivira, which he describes 
as a country consisting of plains destitute of trees, and well known as 
situated far to the northward of the present northern boundary of Mex- 
ico. It is to be noticed also that all the references to the buffalo by the 
older writers on the natural history of Mexico, including Hernandez, 
and Nieremburg, and even Clavigero, refer to the region of Quivira. 
• Dr. Berlandier, who was for a long time a resident of the northeast- 
ern provinces of Mexico, and who at his death left in MSS. a large 
work§ on the Mammals of Mexico, speaks of the buffalo as formerly 
ranging far to the southward of the Rio Grande. I am unable to say, 
however, what are his authorities. In his chapter on this animal he 
thus refers to its former range in Mexico:- 
"An Mexique, lorsque les espagnols, toujours avides de richesses, pous- 
saient leiirs excursions dans le nord ouest, ils ne tarderent pas a rencon- 
trer des bisons. En 1G02, les moines Franciscains qui decouvrirent le 
Nouveau Leon, rencontrerent dansles environs de Monterey de nombreux 
troupeaux de ces quadrupedes. Ils 6taient aussi assez dans la 
Nouvelle Biscaye (etats de Chihuahua et Durango) et s'avangaient quel- 
quefois tresau sud dece pays. Dans le dix-huitieme siecle, ils 
rentde plus en plus vers le nord, et restaient encore fort-communs dans 
les environs du presidio de Bexar. Au commencement du dix-neuvibmc 
*" Animals.-Deer, wild horse, a few buffalo, and wild hogs."-Pike's (Z. M.) Western 
Expeditions, App. to Part III, p. 28, 1810. 
t Catlin in his " North American Indians," Vol. I, gives a map illustrative of the dis- 
tribution of the Indian tribes in 1833. On this map an attempt is made to also show 
the range of the buffalo. Although this is done very imperfectly, it may be worthy of 
mention in this connection that he here represents the buffalo as ranging over the 
greater part of the above-named provinces of Northeastern Mexico. 
t America, p. 303. 
§Now in the Smithsonian Institution. For access to this important MS. I am in- 
debted to the kindness of Professor S. F. Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution. 520 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
sifccle, on les vit se rapprocher graduellement de des terres & 
un tel point qu'ils deyiennent de jour enjour, de plus en plus raves 
autour des lieux habites. Ce n'est maintenant que dans leurs emigra- 
tions periodiques qu'on les trouve pres de Bexar. Chaque annee.au 
printeinps en Atril et Mai, ils vers le nord, pour de nouveau 
se rapprocher des regions meridionales en Septembre et en Octobre. 
Les limites de ces emigrations annuelles sont presque inconnues; il est 
cependant probable que dans le sud, ils ne depassent jamais les rives du 
Rio Bravo, du moins dans 1'etat de Coahuila et Texas, et dans celui de 
Tamaulipas. Vers le nord pas meme retenus par les courants du Mis- 
souri, ils arrivent jusque dans le Michigan, et se trouvent en dtd sur les 
territoires et les 6tats internes des Liats-Unis de 1'Amdrique Septen- 
trionale. La route que ces animaux suivent dans leurs voyages occupe 
plusieurs milles de front et devient tellement tracee qu'independamment 
de la verdure detruite, on croirait voir de champs laboures converts de 
fiente. 
" Ces emigrations ne sont pas car certains troupeaux ne 
paraissent pas suivre la masse generale de leurs semblables, et restent 
stationnaires toute Fannie dans des prairies couvertes d'uno riche vege- 
tation sur les rives du Rio de Guadeloupe et du Rio Colorado de Texas 
non loin des cotes du golfe, a Fest de la colonic de San Felipe de Austin 
entre Brazosia et Matagorda, dans le meme endroit oil La 
Salle et ses compagnons de voyage les virent, il y a pres de deux cents 
ans. Le R. P. Damian Mansanet les vit aussi, inais de nos jours, les 
cotes du Texas, couvertes d'habitations, de hameaux, de petites villes 
et de villages des nouveaux colons, en sont depourvues quoiqu'en 1828, 
il y en eut encore. D'apres les observations faites a ce sujet, on peut 
conclave que les Bisons habitent la zone du nouveau-monde, 
et qu'ils Font habite en tout temps. Au nord, ils ne s'avaucent guere 
au-dela du 48me ou 58me degrd de latitude, et an sud, quoiqu'ils soient 
venus le 25u,e, ihaintenant ils ne depassent plus le 27me ou 28me degre 
du moins dans les localites habitees et connues du pays." 
FORMER OCCURRENCE OF THE BUFFALO OVER THE REGION BETWEEN 
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, AND ITS GRAD- 
UAL RESTRICTION TO ITS PRESENT NARROW LIMITS. 
For convenience of treatment, this region will be considered as em- 
bracing the whole area between the Rio Grande and the British bound- 
ary, over nearly the whole of which immense territory the buffalo is well 
known to have been formerly more or less abundant It seems to have 
been absent from only the lowlands of the Lower Mississippi, it formerly 
ranging throughout nearly all of Texas, the higher prairie-lands of 
Northwestern Louisiana and Arkansas, and thence uniformly northward 
and westward to the Rocky Mountains, including also the Parks and the 
principal valleys within the Rocky Mountains. Beginning at the south- 
ward, we find that the earliest allusions to the buffalo refer to this region. 
Thus de Vaca we are informed, met with the buffalo (he being 
the first European who saw this animal in its native haunts) in " Flor- 
ida," in 1530, at which time this name " was given to all that country 
lying south of Virginia, and extending westward to the Spanish pos- 
sessions in Mexico."* Davis, in his "Conquest of New Mexico," claims 
that V aca was wrecked at some point on the coast of Louisiana west 
of the Mississippi.! Vaca journeyed thence westward, and in his jour- 
* French's Historical Coll, of Louisiana, Part II, p. i. 
t The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, pp. 41, 42, footnote. ALLEN.] 
GRADUAL RESTRICTION TO PRESENT LIMITS. 
521 
nal tbus speaks of the buffalo, the locality referred to being somewhere 
in the southeastern part of Texas: " Cattle come as far as this. I have 
seen them three times and eaten of their meat. I think they are about 
the size of those of Spain. They have small horns like those of Morocco, 
and the hair long and flocky like that of the merino. Some are light 
brown (pardillas), and others black. To iny judgment the flesh is finer 
and sweeter than that of this country. The Indians make blankets of 
those that are not full-grown, and of the larger they make shoes and 
bucklers. They come as far as the sea coast of Florida, and in a direc- 
tion from the north, and range over a district of more than four hun- 
dred leagues. In the whole extent of plain over which they roam, the 
people who live bordering upon it descend and kill them for food, and 
thus a great many skins are scattered throughout the country." * 
They were also found in immense herds on the coast of Texas, at the 
Bay of St. Bernard (Matagorda Bay), and on the lower part of the Col- 
orado (Bio Grande, according to some authorities), by La Salle, in 1685, 
and thence northward across the Colorado, Brazos, and Trinity Rivers. 
Joutel says that when in latitude 28° 51', " the sight of abundance of 
goats and bullocks, differing in shape from ours, and running along the 
coast, heightened our earnestness to be ashore."! They afterwards 
landed in St. Louis Bay (now called Matagorda Bay), where they found 
buffaloes in such numbers on the Colorado River that they called it La 
Riviere aux Boeufs. " These bullocks," says the account, " are very 
like ours; there are thousands of them, but instead of hair they have a 
very long curled sort of wool." J 
In describing the country about their establishment at St. Louis, at 
the mouth of the Riviere aux Boeufs, M. Joutel says: " We were in 
about the 27th degree of north latitude, § two leagues up the country, 
near the Bay of St. Louis, || and the bank of the Riviere aux Boeufs, on 
a little hillock, whence we discovered vast and beautiful plains, extend- 
ing very far westward, all level, and full of greens, which afford pasture 
to an infinite number of beeves and other creatures." 51 Setting out 
from St. Louis on the 12th of January, 1687, they crossed a succession of 
rivers, between which were "spacious plains" covered with "a multi- 
tude of beeves and wild fowl." In crossing the streams, they were 
often guided by the buffalo paths to the best fords. They crossed the 
Colorado, called by them La Maligne, probably near the present site of 
Austin, and the Brazos probably somewhat below Fort Graham. Before 
they reached the Trinity, the country had become more barren, and 
buffaloes had become scarcer. Here M. de la Salle was assassinated, 
and a portion of his party under M. Cavelier, his brother, continued 
their northward march, soon reaching the Trinity River. From the 
Trinity they took a northeasterly course, crossing the Red River near 
the mouth of the Sulphur Fork, and bore thence more easterly, crossing 
the Wacbita and reaching the Arkansas, which they struck near its 
mouth. During this journey from the Trinity to the mouth of the 
Arkansas, they seem to have met with few buffaloes, and these mainly 
* Davis's Translation, in his " Conquest of New Mexico," p. 67. See also the account 
in Purchas (Pilgrims, Vol. IV, p. 1513),-an "abbreviated" translation from Ramusio. 
tJoutel's Historical Journal of Monsieur de la Salle's last voyage to discover the 
Mississippi River, French's Hist. Coll. Louisiana, Part I, p. 98. ■ 
t Ibid., p. 116. 
§ The latitude here given is obviously erroneous, as the context and subsequent 
account of their journey northward clearly show. The latitude must have been 
nearly 29° instead of 27°. 
|| Later called Bay of St. Bernard, which is the same as the present Matagorda Bay. 
II Joutel's Journal, French's Hist. Coll. Louisiana, Part I, pp. 120, 121. 522 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
in the vicinity of the Wachita. Their route was thence somewhat east- 
ward of the great range of the buffalo. The point where M. Cavelier 
reached the Arkansas is supposed to be only a few miles above its junc- 
tion with the Mississippi, and in speaking of the surrounding country 
he says: " The plains on one side [probably to the westward] are stored 
with beeves, wild goats, deer, turkeys, bustards, swans, teal, and other 
game," thus showing that the buffalo ranged eastward nearly to the 
mouth of the Arkansas. 
Ferdinando de Soto, during his march from Florida through North- 
ern Alabama and Northern Mississippi into Arkansas, 1539-'41.* did 
not, as previously noticed, enter the habitat of the buffalo until he had 
crossed the Mississippi and ascended the valley of the Arkansas for 
some distance. Although they found the Indian tribes well supplied 
with their robes, none of De Soto's party saw the buffalo alive. A 
party sent from Pacaha, near the mouth of the Arkansas, to search for 
" the province of Caluga," did not, in a journey of seven days, get ap- 
parently beyond the low grounds, and on their return reported to their 
chief that from the termination of their journey " thenceforward to- 
wards the north the Indians said that the country was very ill inhab- 
ited, because it was very cold ; and that there was such store of oxen, 
that they could keep no corn for them • and that the Indians lived upon 
their flesh.'T The Indians of Coligoa, the highest or most northerly 
point they reached, " reported that five or six leagues from thence to- 
ward the north, there were many of these oxen." The <k ox-hides " they 
obtained from the Indians are described as being " very soft and wooled 
like sheep," showing clearly that what they called ox-hides were the 
skins of buffaloes. Again it is stated, " Not far from thence, toward 
the north, were many oxen. The Christians [Spaniards] saw them not, 
nor came into the country where they were."| 
Passing from Coligoa across the Washita to the mouth of the Red 
River, they again (after the death of De Soto, and under the lead of 
Moscoso) turned westward and reached the Trinity above the point 
where La Salle crossed it; though they entered the highlands, they 
turned back before meeting with buffaloes. 
It hence appears that at this early date the buffalo frequented none 
of the lowlands of the Mississippi, nor those of the Washita and the 
Red Rivers, and only reached the Gulf coast at the mouth of the Gaud- 
aloupe and San Antonio Rivers; and that it probably extended thence 
southward along the coast as far at least as the mouth of the Rio 
Grande del Norte. 
The former existence of the buffalo in the valley of the Pecos seems 
to be well substantiated. Speaking of Espejo's march down the Pecos 
River in 1584, Davis says: " They passed down a river they called Rio 
de las Vacas, or the river of oxen [the river Pecos, and the same Cow 
River that Vaca describes], and was so named because of the great 
number of buffaloes that fed upon its banks. They travelled down this 
river the distance of one hundred and twenty leagues, all the way pass- 
ing through great herds of buffaloes."§ 
* See "A Narrative of the Expedition, of Hernando de Soto into Florida. By a Gen- 
tleman of Elvas. Published at Evora, 1557. Translated from the Portuguese by 
Richard Hakluyt." London, 1609. Original edition reprinted by the Hakluyt So- 
ciety in 1851. The edition of 1611 reprinted by French in 1850, in his " Historical Col- 
lections of Louisiana," Part II. 
I French's Hist. Coll. Louisiana, Part II, p. 175. 
t Ibid.,, pp. 177, 181. 
§ Davis s Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, p. 260. See also Hakluyt, Voyages, Vol. 
Ill, p. 472. J > j > ALLEN,] 
GRADUAL RESTRICTION TO PRESENT LIMITS. 
523 
As already noticed, Coronado met with vast herds of buffaloes in 1542 
on the plains near Cicuic, on the upper Pecos River. From Cicuic Cor- 
onado marched eastward across the plains of Northern Texas to about 
the one hundredth meridian, and thence returned again to Quivira,* 
making a journey of "three hundred leagues." "All that way & plaines 
are as full of crooke-backed oxen, as the mountaine Serena in Spaine is 
of sheepe."t 
These "crooke-backed oxen" Gomara (as translated by Hakluyt) has 
thus described: "These Oxen are of the bignesse and colour of our 
Bulles, but their homes are not so great. They have a great bunch 
upon their fore shoulders, and more haire on their fore part than on 
their hinder part: and it is like wool). They have as it were an horse- 
mane upon their backe bone, and much haire and very long from the 
knees downeward. They have great tufifes of haire hanging downe their 
foreheads, and it seemeth that they have beardes, because of the great 
store of haire hanging downe at their chinnes and throates. The males 
have very long tailes, and a great knobbe or flocke at the end: so that 
in some respect they resemble the Lion, and in some other the Camell. 
They push with their homes, they runne, they overtake and kill an horse 
when they are in their rage and anger. Finally, it is a foule and fierce 
beast of countenance and forme of bodie. The horses fledde from 
them, either because of their deformed shape, or else because they had 
never seene them. Their masters have no other substance: of them they 
eat, they drinke,.they apparel, they shooe 
According to Davis, Castaneda thus describes the buffalo and the 
Plains where it was met with by the people of Coronado's Expedition : 
" The first time we encountered the buffalo, all the horses took to flight 
on seeing them, for they are horrible to the sightThey have a 
broad and short face, eyes two palms from each other, and projecting in 
such a manner sideways that they can see a pursuer. Their beard is 
like that of goats, and so long that it drags the ground when they 
lower the head. They have, on the anterior portion of the body, a 
frizzled hair like sheep's wTool; it is very fine upon the croup, and sleek 
like a lion's mane. Their horns are very short and thick, and can 
scarcely be seen through the hair. They always change their hair in 
May, and at this season they really resemble lions. To make it drop 
more quickly, for they change it as adders do their skins, they roll 
among the brush-wood, which they find in the ravines. 
" Their tail is very short, and terminates in a great tuft. When they 
run they carry it in the air like scorpions. When quite young they are 
tawny, and resemble our calves; but as age increases they change color 
and formTheir wool is so fine that handsome clothes would 
certainly be made of it, but it cannot be died, for it is a tawny red. 
We were much surprised at sometimes meeting innumerable herds of 
bulls without a single cow, and other herds of cows without bulls. It 
would sometimes be forty leagues from one herd to another, and that in 
a country so level that from a distance the sky was seen between their 
legs, so that when many were together, they would have been called 
pines whose foliage united, and if but one was seen his legs had the 
effect of four pines. When near, then it was impossible by an effort to 
see the ground beyond, for all this country is so flat .that turn which 
way we will the sky and the grass are alone to be seen. 
* See R. H. Kern's Map of Coronado's route, as before cited. 
+ Hakluyt, Voyages, Vol. HI, p. 455. (Translated from Goinara's TIistoria de las 
India#, Cap. 214.) 
t Hakluyt, Voyages, Vol. Ill, p. 456. 524 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
« Who would believe that a thousand horses, one hundred and fifty 
cows of Spanish breed, and more than five thousand sheep, and fifteen 
hundred persons, including Indian servants, would not leave the slight- 
est trace of their passage in the desert, and that it was necessary to 
raise, from point to point, heaps of stones and buffalo-bones, in order 
that the rear-guard might follow us, for the grass, short as it was, rose 
up after having been trodden down, as straight and fresh as ever. 
"Another very astonishing thing is that on the eastern margin of one of 
the salt lakes, toward the south, was found a spot almost half a musket- 
shot long, entirely covered with buffalo-bones, to the height of twelve 
feet, and eighteen feet broad, which is surprising in a desert country, 
where no one could have brought these bones together. It is pretended 
that when the lake is troubled by the North winds, it throws upon the 
opposite shore the bones of all animals which have perished in coming 
to drink."* 
Any one who has seen the buffaloes on their native plains can but 
recognize the faithfulness of these details, which are remarkable for 
their minuteness and exact truthfulness. They are further worthy of 
note from being the first descriptions of the buffalo ever published. 
During the exploration of the different portions of the Great Plains, 
from the time of Lewis and Clarke, Pike, Long, and others, down to the 
later expeditions of Fremont, Stansbury, Emory, Marcy, Stimpson, 
Pope, Sitgreaves, and others, and the explorations for " a railroad route 
from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean " in 1853-55, buffaloes, 
or recent traces of them, were found everywhere from the Missouri and 
Upper Mississippi Rivers westward to the remotest valleys of the 
eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, from the plains of Texas north- 
ward to 49th parallel. In the further account of this vast territory it 
is hence necessary to trace only their extirpation over the very large 
portion from which they disappeared. 
Extirpation in Texas and New Mexico.-Long prior to the time of the 
later explorations above mentioned, the buffalo had disappeared from 
the eastern border of the plain south of the Platte River. Even as 
early as the beginning of the present century the range of the buffalo 
had"begun to be materially restricted, these animals having at that time 
been apparently wholly exterminated south of the Rio Grande, while they 
had also disappeared from the adjoining portions of Texas. They appear 
also to have wholly disappeared in Texas south of the Colorado River 
prior to the year 1840. Before this date they had also receded far from 
the coast, and no longer ranged west of the Pecos River, either in Texas 
or New Mexico; they occupying at this time only a narrow oblique belt 
through the middle portion of the State, varying from one hundred 
miles in breadth, and widening rapidly as it approached the northern 
border of the State. From Texas northward, however, they still occu- 
pied nearly all the Great Plains, from the Rocky Mountains almost to 
the Mississippi River. 
I have as yet met with but few data relating to the extermination of 
the buffalo, either south of the Rio Grande or in Texas, prior to 1840, 
but since that period the record is reasonably full. Beginning with the 
year 1841, we find that at this time Kendall, in travelling north from 
Austin, Texas, first met with buffaloes seventy-five miles north of Aus- 
tin, on Little River, a southern tributary of the Brazos, where he found 
them in immense herds. In speaking of them he says: "There are 
perhaps larger herds of buffalo at present in Northern Texas than any- 
"Davis's Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, pp. 206, 207, foot-note. ALLEN.] 
EXTIRPATION IN TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO. 
525 
where else on the western prairies, their most formidable enemies, the 
Indians, not ranging so low down in large parties on account of the 
whites; but I was told that every year their numbers were gradually 
decreasing, and their range, owing to the approach of white settlers 
from the east and south, becoming more and more circumscribed." 
Kendall also found them numerous on the Brazos, and states that they 
occasionally took shelter in the Cross Timbers, and that he last met 
with them, in going westward, on the upper part of the Big Washita, 
one of the sources of the Bed River, near the one hundredth degree of 
longitude.* 
Kennedy, writing in the same year, says, " The bison is still to be 
met with in the mountainous districts between the Guadeloupe and the 
Rio Grande."t According to Gregg, however, they had already disap- 
peared east of the Cross Timbers as early as 1840. $ 
In 1849, in an expedition from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fe, 
Lieutenant J. II. Simpson first saw signs of buffaloes near the 97th 
meridian, a few miles south of the Canadian, but adds that he saw not 
more than two buffaloes on the whole journey. In speaking of the 
game, he says: " In regard to the buffalo, there can be no question that 
they have been in the habit of infesting the route in places during cer- 
tain seasons of the year. Indeed, Gregg mentions them as swarming 
on the plains on his return trip from Santa F(5, in the spring of 1840. 
During our journey, however, I did not see more than two, from the 
beginning to the end of the trip, and .therefore I am not at liberty to 
hold them up as any certain source upon which to rely for subsistence." § 
Roemer, in 1849, says that the buffalo was then found only in the 
hilly parts of the State, far from the coast, and that herds of a thou- 
sand together were still seen between the Brazos and Austin.|| It would 
seem, however, that at this time there were very few buffaloes south of 
the Red River, as during the years 1849, 1850, and 1851 a series of mili- 
tary reconnaissances were made in Texas, forming a network of lines cov- 
ering a large part of the State, during the running of which no buffaloes 
seem to have been met with. Lieutenant Michler surveyed a line from Fort 
Washita southward along the 97th meridian, 51 from 34° 30' to about 31°, 
and thence southwestward to San Antonio. Another line was run from 
Fort Washita southwestward, in a nearly direct line to the Pecos River 
striking it in longitude 103°, and latitude 31° 20'. A line was con- 
tinued from this point eastward again to the 100th meridian, and thence 
southeastward to Corpus Christi Bay, in longitude 96°, and latitude 
28° 40z. Another line was carried down the Pecos to longitude 101° 
40', and thence to the head-waters of the Nueces, and down this river 
also to Corpus Christi Bay. The narratives of these explorations make 
no mention of buffaloes, as they doubtless would if buffaloes had been 
met with.** In 1850 Marcy met with a few stragglers south of the 
Canadian, near the divide between the Canadian and Washita Forks 
of the Red River, and saw their tracks and other indications of their 
presence there. He reports that the Kiowas and Comanches went 
* Kendall (G. W.), Narrative of the Texan Santa F6 Expedition, Vol. I, pp. 78, 79. 
+ Kennedy, (Wm.), Texas : The Else, Progress, and Prospects of the Eepublic, Vol. 
I, p. 122. 
t Commerce of the Prairies, Vol. II, p. 122. 
$ Congress. Rep., 31st Congr., 1st Session, Senate Ex. Doc. No. 12, pp. 6, 20. 
|| Roemer (Ferdinand), Texas, p. 462. 
T The central portion of the wooded belt known as the "Cross Timbers" lies along 
this meridian. 
** Congress. Rep., 31st Congr., 1st Session, Sen. Doc. No. 64, and accompanying maps. 526 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
north in summer to hunt the buffalo on the plains of the Arkansas, only 
a few buffaloes crossing at this time to the south of the Canadian. 
In 1852, according to the u Topographical Sketches of the Military 
Posts" in Texas, buffaloes had entirely disappeared from the region 
about Fort Worth* (on west fork of the Trinity, just west of the 97th 
meridian); they are not mentioned among the animals found at this 
date about Fort Belknap t (on the Brazos, longitude about 98° 30'), 
neither were they then found about Fort Ter ret J (on the 100th merid- 
ian). Very few are said to have been found as far south as Fort 
Phantom Hill since 1837. § At Camp Johnston, || on the Concho 
Biver (near the present Fort Concho), one only is reported as having 
been seen, and the region is said to have been then not within their 
favorite range; but they are at the same time enumerated among the 
animals met with about Fort McKavett,fl situated some fifty miles to 
the southward of Fort Concho. 
Lieutenant Whipple, in his report of the survey of the thirty-fifth 
parallel, made in 1853, found buffalo bones bleaching near a brackish 
spring, just west of the Cross Timbers, and nearly on the 99th meridian. 
A few days later they saw the first living buffalo, and met with a few 
stragglers on succeeding days on the sources of the Washita branch of 
the Bed Bi ver. He speaks of seeing buffalo signs as far west as Camp 
44, a little east of the 102d meridian. The main herds, however, were 
north of the Canadian, from which these were merely stragglers.** Pro- 
fessor Jules Marcou, who accompanied Lieutenant Whipple's expedition 
as geologist, has kindly furnished me with a few additional particuk s 
from his note-books. He informs me that the first bones of the buffalo 
were met with as far east as the Cross Timbers, or near the 98th merid- 
ian ; but the region appeared not to have been visited by these animals 
for ten or twelve years. The first living buffalo was seen between 
Camps 33 and 34, or about 99° 40', just south of the Canadian. The 
next day many carcasses were observed, and two days later five old 
bulls were seen. An old bull was killed between Camps 36 and 37, near 
the meridian of 100° 25', but no living buffaloes were seen west of the 
101st meridian, and no fresh signs were seen west of the 102d. All the 
recent indications of buffaloes were thus met with between the meridians 
of 98° 30' and 102°. The journey being made in September, the herds 
had not returned from the north, the individuals met with being only 
stragglers which had wandered somewhat to the southward of the usual 
southern limit of the summer range. 
Captain (now Major-General) Pope in 1854 surveyed the 32d parallel, 
from El Paso and Dona Ana, on the Bio Grande, to Preston, on the Bed 
Biver, passing northerly, and crossing the Pecos and the head-waters 
of the Colorado, Trinity, and Brazos Bivers. Mr. J. H. Byrne, in his 
diary of the expedition, reports meeting bois de vache " for the first time " 
at Camp No. 10, near the Ojo del Cuerbo, or Salt Lakes, west of the 
Guadeloupe Mountains, and in the Valley of the Bio Grande. This is 
the only allusion to buffalo or buffalo " sign" contained in the narrative, 
although the kinds and quantity of game met with each day appear to 
*Med. Statistics U. S. Army, 1839-1854, p. 373. 
tlbid., p. 372. 
t Ibid., p. 395. 
§ Ibid., p. 376. 
|j Ibid., p. 380. 
IT Med. Statistics, U. S. Army, 1839-1854, p. 391 
** Pacific R. R. Explorations and Surveys, Vol. Ill, Lieutenant Whipple's Report on 
the 35th Parallel, Part I, pp. 26, 28, 29, 35. ALLEN.] 
EXTIRPATION IN TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO. 
527 
be duly chronicled.* We are further led to infer the entire absence at 
this time of buffaloes in Texas by some remarks made by Captain Pope 
in his General Report, respecting the Comanche Indians, whose country 
was on the head-waters of the"Canadian and Red Rivers, in the extreme 
northern part of Texas. He says : " During the summer months nearly 
the whole tribe migrates to the north to hunt buffalo and wild horses on 
the plains of the Upper Arkansas.'' t 
Captain H. M. Lazelle, 8th U. S. Infantry, informs me that in 1859 
there were no buffaloes in New Mexico, nor in Texas west of the 99th 
meridian, but that there were vast numbers in Northern Texas between 
the meridians of 99° and 96°; but that they did not extend so far south 
as Pope's old trail of 1854. J 
Hence it appears that for quite a number of years the buffaloes nearly 
abandoned Texas, or visited only its northwestern portions, and were of 
somewhat uncertain occurrence, in summer at least, as far north as the 
Canadian. Of late, however, they have again become common over a 
considerable portion of the northwestern part of the State, occasionally 
extending southward along the 100th meridian almost to the Rio Grande. 
Major-General M. C. Meigs, Quartermaster General of the United States 
Army, says, in some valuable MS. notes on the buffalo,§ that in the win- 
ter of 1869-70 he saw their carcasses near Fort Concho, Texas, " showing 
that the buffalo had been abundant in that neighborhood the previous 
year." The prairies having been extensively burned that winter about 
Concho, the buffaloes had not appeared within twenty miles of the post 
that season. He also says that in the winter of 1871-72 they extended 
their migrations westward to the Staked Plains. || 
Mr. J. Boll, the well-known entomological collector, also informs me 
that during the winter of 1874-75 they were still more abundant over 
quite a large part of Northern Texas, doubtless in consequence of their 
persecution by the hunters in Southwestern Kansas. Respecting the 
eastern boundary of their range at the present time (January, 1876), he 
says: " So viel mir bis jetzt bekannt, so geht der Bison bstlich im Texas 
nicht mehr iiber die Linie hinaus welche von der Miindung der Little 
Wichita in den Red River in gerader Richtung fast siidlich bis zur Mun- 
dung des Pecan Bayou in den River Colorado sich austreckt. Wie sich 
diese Linie vom Colorado River bis zum Rio Grande gestaltet ist schwer 
zu sagen, doch glaube ich dass von der Miindung des Pecan Bayou sie 
mehr eine stark sudwestliche Richtung bis zum 30° nordlich Breite 
annehmen wird." 
Respecting their present southern limit in Texas, a letter written by 
Mr. J. Stevens in answer to my inquiries on this point, and kindly 
transmitted to me by Mr. C. E. Aiken, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, 
states, on the authority of Mr. W. H. Case, who has lived for the last two 
or three years at Fort Concho, that buffaloes have of late been quite 
numerous there in winter, and that they were especially so last winter. 
He says that " after severe storms they come in from the north in large 
numbers, at which times he has seen larger herds there than anywhere 
else, not excepting Kansas and the Indian Territory. East of Fort Con- 
cho he says they do not go south of the latitude of that post, but that to 
* Pacific R. R. Explorationsand Surveys, Vol. II, Pope's Exploration of the 32d Par- 
allel, from the Red River to the Rio Grande, pp. 51-93. 
t Ibid., p. 15. 
t Pope's trail crosses the 96th meridian in about latitude 33° 30', and strikes the Pecos 
in longitude 103° and latitude 31° 30', at Emigrant Crossing. 
§ For access to this interesting paper I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Elliott 
Coues, the eminent ornithologist. 
i| MS. Notes on the Buffalo. 528 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
the westward they go twenty to fifty miles further to the southward, 
but only occasionally. Mr. Stevens adds that none are found very far 
to the westward of Fort Concho, and that none have been found for a 
long time in any part of New Mexico, and that probably none ever will 
be found there again. From the best information I have been able to 
obtain, their present western limit seems to be the eastern border of the 
Staked Plains. [*] 
Extermination in Arkansas, Missouri, lou'.a, and Minnesota.-Passing 
now to the region north of Texas, the history of the extermination 
of the buffalo throughout the tier of States adjoining the Mississippi 
River-namely, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota-will be first 
given, and afterward an account of its extermination over the region 
between the Platte River and the northern boundary of Texas. 
According to Nuttall, the bison was still to be met with in Arkansas 
as late as 1819, a few then existing near the Arkansas River, in the 
present county of Conway, not far from the centre of the Stated 
In a journey from Fort Smith southwestward to the Red River, his 
party also met with large herds on Riameche Creek, in the present 
Indian Territory, near the southwestern border of Major 
Long found their skulls and other remains at Massern and Vache 
Grasse Creeks, in Western Arkansas, in 1820, showing that they had 
existed at that point at a not very remote period.§ 
Gregg, writing about 1844, says: "Even within thirty years they were 
abundant over much of the present States of Missouri and Arkansas," 
or as late as 1815.|| In 1820 settlements had extended up the Arkansas 
nearly to the western border of the State, and probably soon after this 
date the buffaloes were wholly extirpated throughout the present State 
of Arkansas. 
Beck states that in Missouri, as late as 1823, "immense herds" of 
buffaloes were "frequently seen covering the extensive plains which 
stretch along the west part of the State. During the dry seasons," he 
says, "they remain in the neighborhood of rivers, but they uniformly 
migrate to the south at the approach of winter." fl 
It thus appears that the buffalo also lingered in Western Missouri till 
about 1820 to 1825. They probably disappeared from Southern Iowa at 
about the same period, but they existed for a much longer time in the 
northern half of the State. In earlier times Charlevoix found " magnifi- 
cent meadows" in Southeastern Iowa, on the Des Moines River, "quite 
covered with buffalo, and other wild creatures."** Major Long, in a trip 
eastward from Council Bluffs in 1819, found "their skulls and other 
remains on the plains of the Nishnabatona, and in one instance dis- 
covered the tracks of a bull; but," he adds, "all the herds of these 
animals appear to have deserted the country east of Council Bluffs."tt 
According to Assistant Surgeon Charles C. Keeney, the buffalo was 
sometimes met with on the open prairies a few miles west of Fort Dodge, 
on the Des Moines River, as late as 1852. || 
M. Belon, an old French voyageair, whom I met in 1873 on the Yellow- 
[ * According to a correspondent ("H. M. H.") of the Mason News-Item, April 28, 
1877, buffaloes are plentiful at the present time in the vicinity of Fort McKavett - 
J. A. A.] 
t Travels into the Arkansas Country, p. 118. 
t Ibid., pp. 149, 150. 
§ Long's Expedition from Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains, Vol. II, p. 264. 
|| Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, Vol. II, p. 113. 
Beck (L. J.), Gazetteer of the States of Illinois and Missouri, p. 167. 
** Letters, Goadby's English ed., p. 295. 
tt Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Vol. I, p. 421. 
it Med. Statistics U. S. Army, 1839-1854, p. 55. ALLEN. ] 
EXTIRPATION IN ARKANSAS, MISSOURI, &C. 
529 
stone, acting as interpreter for the expedition of that year, and who 
moved to Minnesota in 1837, informed me that buffaloes were abundant 
within fifty miles of St. Paul as late as 1836, and were common on the 
head-waters of the Cedar and Des Moines Rivers, on both sides of the 
Iowa and Minnesota boundary, as late as 1845. They have, however, 
been for many years extinct throughout the present State of Iowa, with 
the exception of the occurrence of a few stragglers in the extreme west- 
ern counties. When I was in the western part of the State in 1867, I 
was informed that a few still remained in that section, and that up to 
that time one or more had been killed every year as far south as Greene 
County. They were represented as being more common further north, 
but that no herds were met with south of the Sioux River, and rarely 
east of the Missouri. Those found further east were only stragglers 
from distant herds.* Professor Bessey, of the Iowa Agricultural College, 
informs me that a few were seen in the bottom-lands below Council 
Bluffs as late even as about 1869, and also, at about the same time, in 
the northwestern part of the State,-stragglers, of course, from remote 
herds. 
In Minnesota, west of the Mississippi, buffaloes remained until a 
recent period. In 1823 Major Long found herds numbering thousands 
of individuals about the sources of the Red and Minnesota (or St. 
Peter's) Rivers. He states that in 1822 they did not descend the Min- 
nesota River below Great Swan Lake, and that in 1823 " the gentlemen of 
the Columbia Fur Company were obliged to travel five days in a north- 
west direction from Lake Travers before they fell in with the game, but 
they soon succeeded in killing sixty animals."! The buffaloes are said, 
however, to have lingered about Fort Ridgely, situated a few miles 
above Swan Lake, till about 1847, and that as late as 1856 they were 
found one hundred miles to the northwestward of this point-! As late 
as 1844 Captain Allen found large herds in the southwestern part of the 
present State of Minnesota. He says: " Seventy-five miles west of the 
source of the Des Moines we struck the range of the buffalo, and con- 
tinued in it to the Big Sioux River, and down that river about eighty- 
six miles. Below that we did not see any recent signs of them. They 
were sometimes seen in droves of hundredsWhile among the 
buffalo we killed as many as we wanted, and without trouble."§ Pope 
states that in 1850 buffaloes were still killed in the immediate vicinity of 
the settlements at Pembina, and that they existed in great abundance 
between the Pembina and the Shayenne River,|| or along the present 
western boundary of the State. They appear, however, to have very 
soon after left the whole valley of the Red River, being rapidly slaugh- 
tered and pressed westward by the incursions of the Red River half- 
breed hunters, who are reported to have killed annually, at about this 
time, twenty thousand buffaloes south of tjie United States and British 
A few lingered in the southwestern part of the State till 
within a very few years, or occurred there rather as stragglers from the 
herds west of the Big Sioux River, in Southwestern Dakota. 
From the foregoing it hence appears that the buffalo was more or less 
abundant over large portions of the States of Arkansas and Missouri 
as late as 1812 to 1815, but that few remained in either State later than 
* See Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIII, p. 186, 1869. 
t Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, etc., Vol. II, pp. 9-24, 29. 
j Assistant Surgeon A. B. Hasson, in Med. Statis. U. S. Army, 1839-1854, p. 67. 
§ Allen, (Captain J.), Congress. Rep., 29th Congr., 1st Session, Doc. No. 168, p. 5. 
|| Pope, (General John), Report of an Expedition to the Territory of Minnesota, Con- 
gress. Reports, 31st Congr., 1st Session, Sen. Doc. No. 42, p. 27. 
H Rice (H. M.), Pope's Report (cf.), p. 4. 
34 G S 530 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
1820. At about this date they seemed to have also disappeared from 
Eastern and Southern Iowa, but were quite numerous in the northwest- 
ern part of the State, and adjoining parts of Minnesota, as late as 1.840 
to 1845, where occasionally an old bull was met with as late as 1869. 
As already stated, they disappeared in Minnesota east of the Mississippi 
River prior to 1832;* and they appear to have been exterminated over 
the whole region east of the Red River as early as 1850, and to have 
survived later elsewhere in the State only in the extreme southwestern 
counties, where a few lingered till about 1869. 
Permanent Division of the Buffalo into two distinct Herds, and their Ex- 
termination over the greater Pari of the Region between the Northern Bound- 
ary of Texas and the Platte River. - As is well known to those who have 
given much attention to the subject, the great buffalo herd that once 
extended continuously from the plains of the Saskatchewan to the Rio 
Grande was divided about 1849 into two bands by the California over- 
land immigration, and that since that time the two herds have never 
united. The great overland route, as is well known, followed up the 
Kansas and Platte Rivers, and thence westward by the North Platte, 
crossing the Rocky Mountains by way of the South Pass. The buffa- 
loes were all soon driven from the vicinity of this line of travel, thou- 
sands being annually slaughtered, a large proportion of them being 
killed wantonly.! The increase of travel, and finally the construction 
of the Union Pacific Railroad and the consequent opening up of the 
country to settlement, has effected a wider separation of the herds, the 
buffaloes retiring every year further and further from their persecutors. 
None are now found for a long distance to the north of this road, and 
they approach it from the southward only along that portion situated 
between Fort Kearney and the forks of the Platte. In treating of the 
"Southern Herd," as the southern division is commonly termed, it will 
be found convenient to trace first its extirpation over the region to the 
eastward, and afterwards to the westward, of its present range. 
As previously stated, Nuttall found buffaloes in 1819 in Southwestern 
Arkansas and the adjoining portions of the Indian Territory.| Pike, 
however, in 1806, first met with these animals on the divide between 
the sources of the Osage River and those of the Neosho Fork of the 
Arkansas, near the 98th meridian, or near Council Grove in Eastern 
Kansas, and reports that they were already nearly exterminated over 
the hunting-grounds of the Osages and Pawnees.§ In 1820 Major Long 
found no large herds east of the mouth of the Little Arkansas, near 
the 98th meridian. At the Great Bend of the Arkansas, however, he 
met with them for several days "in vast and almost continuous herds."|| 
* See anted, p. 117. 
t Respecting the influence of the overland emigration upon the buffalo, we find 
Captain Stansbury, who passed ovk the emigrant trail in the summer of 1849, speak- 
ing as follows: Under date of June 27, he says, uTo-day the hunters killed their first 
buffalo, but in order to obtain it had to diverge some four or five miles from the road 
and to pass back of the bluffs, the instinct or experience of these sagacious animals 
having rendered them shy of approaching the line of travel. This has always been 
the case, for it is a well-attested fact, that when the emigration first commenced, travel- 
ling trains were frequently detained for hours by immense herds crossing their track, 
and in such numbers that it was impossible to drive through them. In many instances 
it was quite difficult to .Prevent their own loose cattle from mingling with the buffa- 
loes, of which they did not seem to be at all afraid."-Salt Lake Expedition, p. 34. 
t Travels into the Arkansas Country, pp. 149, 150. 
§ Pike (Z. M.), Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, and to the Sources of 
the Arkansas, Kansas, La Platte, and Pierre Jaune Rivers, etc., in the years 1805,1806, 
and 1807. 
|| Long's Exped. from Pittsburg to the Rocky Mts., Vol. II, pp. 204, 207. ALLEN.] 
PRESENT DIVISION INTO TWO HERDS. 
531 
Catlin's "Outline Map of Indian localities in 1833"* purports to give 
also the range of the buffalo, but none are represented as occurring be- 
tween the Kansas and Arkansas Rivers east of the 99th meridian, but 
in his account of his visit to the Comanche country he speaks of meet- 
ing with buffaloes about forty miles east of the junction of the False 
Washita and Red Rivers, or near the 96th meridian.! 
General Doniphan, during his march in 1846 from Fort Leavenworth 
to Santa Fe, used bois de vache for fuel when passing the head of the 
Little Arkansas, and first met with herds of buffaloes on the Arkansas 
at Pawnee Ranch, near the present site of Fort Larned.f The previous 
year Lieutenant J. W. Abert found them as far east as 97° 32'.§ Lieu- 
tenant Abert reports meeting with them the following year near the 98th 
meridian, just west of which he found them in immense herds.|| 
Lewis and Clarke, in ascending the Missouri River in 1804, first met 
with buffaloes at the mouth of the Kansas River, but state that they 
did not become common till they reached the Sioux River.fi Bradbury 
found them in 1810 at Floyd's Bluff. Audubon says that when he and 
his party went up the Missouri River in 1843, " the first buffalo were 
heard of near Fort Leavenworth, some having a short time before been 
killed within forty miles of that place. We did not, however," he says, 
" see any of these animals until we had passed Fort Croghan, but above 
this point we met with them almost daily, either floating dead on the 
river or gazing at our steamboat from the shore."** 
As early as 1834 Murray, in his journey westward from Fort Leaven- 
worth into the Indian country, first met with buffaloes on the Republi- 
can,tt showing that they had already become extinct or of uncertain 
occurrence in Eastern Kansas. Fremont, in 1842, in marching north- 
westward from Fort Leavenworth to the Platte River, by way of the 
Kansas River, came suddenly upon great herds just above Grand Isle, 
in about longitude 99° 30z, or near the present site of Fort Kearney. 
The following year (1843), in crossing the plains considerably to the 
southward of his route of the previous year, he first met with the buf- 
falo on the divide between the Solomon and the Republican Forks, also 
near the 99th meridian.Jj: Emory, in 1846, says that the range of the 
buffalo along the Arkansas was " westward, between the ninety-eighth 
and the one hundred and first meridians of longitude." §§ In 1849 Stans- 
bury saw no buffaloes east of the forks of the Platte, but found them 
in abundance to the westward of this point. Captain Stansbury's guide 
reported to him that not many years before the plains somewhat to the 
east of Fort Kearney were black with herds of buffaloes " as far as the 
eye could reach." |||| 
In July, 1853, Captain Gunnison's party first met with fresh signs of 
the buffalo on the Saline, and on the Kansas near the mouth of the Sa- 
line ; their first buffalo was killed on the Little Arkansas; somewhat 
* Catlin (G.), North American Indians, Vol. I, map. 
t Ibid., Vol. II, p. 46. 
t Hughes (J. T.), Doniphan's Expedition, pp. 43, 47. 
$ Congress. Rep., 29th Congr., 1st Sees., House Ex. Doc. No. 2, p. 217. 
|| Notes of a Military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth, Mo., to San Diego, 
Cal. Congress. Rep., 30th Congr., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. No. 7, p. 11. 
to the Rocky Mountains, Vol. I, pp. 19, 67. 
** Quadrupeds of North America, Vol. II, p. 50. 
tt Tra vels in North America, Vol. I, pp. 208,227. 
tt Fremont's Explorations during 1842, '43, and '44, pp. 18, 25, 49, 57, 109, et scq. 
Emory (W. H.), Notes of a Military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth to 
San Diego, Cal., p. 16. 
HU Stansbury's Expedition to the Great Salt Lake, pp. 29, 36. 532 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
later they found themselves in the midst of immense herds on the Re- 
publican Fork.* 
'Dr. Hayden, writing of his journey across the plains in the summer of 
1858, says, " Before going into the interior of the Territory [of Kansas] 
we had expected to find the whole country immediately west of Fort 
Riley comparatively sterile; on the contrary, however, we were agree- 
ably" disappointed at meeting with scarcely any indications of decreasing 
fertility, as far as our travels extended, which was about sixty miles west 
of Fort Riley. Here we found the prairies clothed with a luxuriant 
growth of grass, and literally alive with vast herds of buffalo, that were 
quietly grazing as far as the eye could reach, in every direction." t 
Lieutenant E. S. Godfrey, of the 7th United States Cavalry, who has 
recently spent several years in the department of the Missouri, in- 
forms me that when Fort Harker was established, in I860, the buffaloes 
ranged regularly as far east as this point, and even passed beyond it. 
They were taken here for several years after, but in 1870 had almost 
wholly retired to points further westward. 
Professor B. F. Mudge, of the Kansas State Agricultural College, has 
given me the following general statement respecting their extermination 
in Eastern Kansas. Under date of February 7, 1873, in kind response 
to my inquiries, Professor Mudge wrote as follows: 
" The buffalo ranged to the eastern border of Kansas as recently as 
1835. About that time the United States authorities removed the Dela- 
ware, Pottawattamie, Kaws, and other tribes of Indians to 'reserva- 
tions' in the eastern part of what is now Kansas. These Indians soon 
drove the buffalo as far west as the Blue River (one hundred miles west 
of the Missouri River), which was as far as the reservations extended. 
The buffalo held that range till 1854, when Kansas was made a Territory 
and whites began to settle here. For fifteen years from that time the 
buffalo receded, on an average, about ten miles a year. For three years 
past they have been hunted in summer for their hides for tanning ; this 
is exterminating them very rapidly. Now they are not found in North- 
ern Kansas east of 100° of longitude; in Southern Kansas as far east- 
erly as longitude 98°, the western boundary of Kansas being 102°. In 
a few years I think they will not range north of the Arkansas River." 
None of the government expeditions sent across the plains since 1840 
seem to have met with the buffalo east of the longitude of Fort Riley, 
or east of the 97th meridian, from the Platte southward to Texas. In 
the Indian Territory they have not for a number of years ranged to the 
eastward of Fort Sill.J It thus appears that the buffaloes were ex- 
terminated in Eastern Kansas and in the eastern part of the Indian Ter- 
ritory7 over a breadth of about four degrees of longitude between 1835 
and 1870. 
The extermination along the western border of the southern herd has 
also extended over a considerable area. In 1806 Pike found them 
throughout his march across the plains from the western edge of Arkan- 
sas to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, meeting with them in 
* Beckwith's Report of Captain Gunnison's Exploration of the Thirty-eighth and 
Thirty-ninth Parallels, Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys, Vol. II. 
f Geological Report of the Exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, p. 
122. 
t Captain J. W. Powell, of the 8th United States Infantry, informs me that in 1872 
the buffalo did not range as far east as Fort Sill, but occurred fifty miles west of this 
point in considerable numbers. Lieutenant Godfrey (7th Cavalry) also states that dur- 
ing 1871 and 1872 he met with them throughout that part of the Indian Territory west 
of Fort Sill. ALLEN.] 
PRESENT DIVISION INTO TWO HERDS. 
533 
the greatest abundance between the Smoky Hill Fork and the Arkansas.* 
In 1845 Lieutenant Turner found buffaloes abundant in the valley of 
the Arkansas from Bent's Fort thence eastward for over two hundred 
miles.! The following year (1846) Dr. Wislizenus reports that on Col- 
onel Doniphan's march across the plains all signs of the buffalo, even 
including the bois de vache, disappeared near the meridian of 101°, be- 
tween the Arkansas and Cimarron.J 
Fremont states that in 1842, at 103° 30z, between the two forks of the 
Platte, they absolutely covered the plains, and were abundant thence 
westward to St. Vrain's Fort, situated a little to the southward of the 
present town of Cheyenne. Between the forks of the Platte and along 
the North Platte to Fort Laramie but few were found, but recent signs 
of them were abundant. On the Laramie plains westward as far as 
Laramie River, large herds were constantly met with, but this year none 
were seen on the North Platte above the junction of Laramie River, 
the grasshoppers and the dry weather having destroyed every blade of 
grass. § 
In June, 1844, Fremont found them in immense numbers in North, 
Middle, and South Parks, in the present State of Colorado, as well as on 
the tributaries of the Green River on the western slope of the mount- 
ains, and on the Sweet Water, and the other extreme head-waters of 
the North Platte, from all of which extensive region they were nearly 
or quite exterminated during the following twenty years. 
When the miners first visited the parks and mountains of Colorado, 
in the summer of 1859, they found them occupied by small bands of 
buffaloes, which afforded them an abundance of meat for several years. 
They have been scarce there, however, for the last ten years, during 
which time only stragglers have been met with. In the summer of 1871 
I found their skulls still frequent in South Park and up the valley of 
the South Platte to its extreme source. They were very frequent at and 
above Montgomery, and even on the neighboring mountains above 
timber-line, showing that not many years ago the buffalo ranged over 
the grassy slopes of the mountainseven to above, the limit of the timber. 
I heard of a single small band of two or three dozen individuals near the 
southern borders of South Park, in the vicinity of Buffalo Springs, and 
saw a calf at one of the ranches that was captured in June of that year 
as the band passed up the valley of the South Platte into the Park.|| 
Mr. Wm. N. Byers, of Denver, Colorado, writes me that a band of 
twelve were seen in South Park in 1873, and that " occasionally a little 
band is still seen in the northern edge of Middle Park and in North 
Park." " About seventy-five wintered on the head of Muddy or Milk 
River, Middle Park, last winter [1874-75]. Another band was seen on 
the head-waters of Willow Creek, ranging thence over the divide infp 
North Park. Most of our people call these mountain animals Bisons, 
and think them smaller than the Plains Buffalo, but they are evidently 
the same animal, resorting to the mountains of their own choice." 
One of these small parties, according to western newspapers, seems 
to have recently fallen a prey to the Indians, a Denver paper of a recent 
* Pike (Z. M.), Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, and to the Sources of the 
Arkansas, Kansas, La Platte, and Pierre Jaune Rivers, etc., in the years 1805,1806, and 
1807. 
t Cong. Rep., 29th Congress, 1st Session, House Ex. Doc. No. 2, p. 217. 
t Wislizenus (Dr. A,), Memoir of a Tour to Northern Mexico in company with Colonel 
Doniphan's Expedition in 1846-47, Cong. Rep., 30th Congress, 1st Session, Miscel. Doc. 
No. 26. 
$ Frdmont's Exploration during 1842,1843, and 1844, etc. 
U Bull. Essex Inst., Vol. VI, pp. 54,55. 534 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY# 
date containing the following: "A party of Indians in the northwestern 
edge of the Middle Park came upon a herd of buffalo the other day, and 
killed them all-forty-two in number. All they saved was the skins, 
leaving the meat to rot. Such waste of the game ought to be stopped, 
and the sooner the better." 
Dr. Hayden informs me that a band of eighteen was seen by one of 
his parties near Pike's Peak in 1873, and that in 1875 there was a band 
of about nineteen on the west side of Pike's Peak, and another band of 
about sixty near Mount Lincoln, in the South Park. Mr. C. E. Aiken, 
probably referring to these, writes me that he knows of but two bands 
existing at the present time (February, 1876) in the mountains about 
South Park, one of which " grazes on the mountains at the head of 
Tarryall Creek, and is frequently found above timber-line; the other 
ranges in the rugged mountains south of Pike's Peak, and numbers 
some thirty or forty individuals." 
In 1871 their bleached skulls were still frequent in the valley of the 
North Platte, in Western Wyoming, as well as on the Laramie Plains, 
but I was assured that only stragglers had been seen in all this region 
during the previous ten or fifteen years.* Stansbury reports meeting 
with them in abundance on Pass Creek and other head-waters of the 
North Platte, in 1849.1 
In respect to the extermination of the buffalo along the western edge 
of the plains in Colorado, and the present western boundary of the 
Southern Herd, I have been favored with a valuable communication 
from Mr. William N. Byers, editor and proprietor of the " Rocky Mount- 
ain News." In kindly answer to my inquiries he thus refers (writing 
under date of July 3, 1875) to the gradual extermination of the buffalo 
along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. He says: "Perhaps 
the best idea I can give you of the shrinkage of the column on this side 
is gathered from the history of the early trading-posts established here, 
mainly for barter in their hides. The first trading-post in this [South 
Platte] valley was built in 1832, six miles below Denver, and about fif- 
teen miles, direct, from the mountain foot. A trader employed here 
from 1832 to 1836 told me that he thought that he never looked out over 
the walls of the fort without seeing buffalo, and sometimes they covered 
the plain. At that time their moving columns surged up against the 
mountain foot. Five or six years later the next fort was built five or 
six miles down the river, then a third a tew miles below the second, 
and, about 1840, a fourth, nearly twenty miles below the third, or forty 
odd miles from the mountains. There the trade was concentrated and 
the up-river forts were successively abandoned, owing to the decrease ot 
the buffalo in their vicinity. But great herds of buffaloes occasionally 
ranged over the present site of Denver as late as 1846. 
" The trading-posts in the valley of the Arkansas possess a similar 
history. The earliest, built about 1826, was some twenty miles from the 
mountains. Others succeeded, one after another, until New Fort Bent,- 
afterward Fort Bent, now Fort Lyon, - about eighty miles from the 
mountains, closed the history of these early trading outposts. They 
were placed so as to be most convenient to the camps of the hunters, 
to enable the traders to supply the latter with goods and to buy their 
skins. 
" The present range of the buffalo in Colorado," he says, " is bounded 
substantially on the west by a line about one hundred miles east ot the 
* See Bulletin Essex Institute, Vol. VI, p. 59. 
t Salt Lake Expedition, pp. 243-247. ALLEN.] 
INFLUENCE OF RAILROADS UPON THE BUFFALO. 
535 
foot of the mountains, and |parallel therewith. The herds are thin on 
the edge, thickening to the eastward. Small bands occasionally wander 
ten or twenty miles further west, but the line is quite distinctly marked. 
In the fall they move gradually but slowly southward, and in late winter 
and spring return in the same way north ; but the eastern edge of Col- 
orado is really occupied all the winter by herds that come from and re- 
turn to the north. In summer very few remain upon the Colorado range. 
I have no idea of the relative movement of individual herds north and 
south during the year, but there seems to be a regular ebb and flow once 
a year. There has been no marked change in the limit of the range 
westward in the last five years, but the columns have been thinned fear- 
fully, -certainly one-half." 
Influence of the Railroads upon the Decrease of the Buffalo.-Three rail- 
roads now enter or pass near the range of the Southern Herd. Their 
influence, though immense in respect to its decrease, seems not to have 
very greatly affected the extent of its range. The railroads, of course, 
primarily affect the buffalo by affording to the hunters easy access to 
its haunts, and by placing the hunters in communication with ready 
markets for the products of the chase. They also open up the country 
they traverse to permanent settlement, thus rendering the extirpation 
of the buffalo from the country bordering these avenues of travel not 
only speedy but permanent. Although the buffalo has no little fear of 
these iron highways and their thundering trains, this alone would not, 
for a long time at least, seriously influence its range; and the herds 
have not, except through the thinning of their ranks by the hunters who 
make these roads the bases of their operations, materially changed their 
range since the opening of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869. The 
buffaloes still range northward to this road between Fort Kearney and 
the Forks of the Platte, but they appear to have of late rarely passed 
north of it. At this point the buffalo range is still within easy drive 
from the line of the road, and is often chosen by Eastern hunting parties 
for their field of operations. 
The Kansas Pacific Railway, traversing as it does one of the favorite 
and formerly most populous portions of the range of the great Southern 
Herd, has given opportunity, since it was opened in 1870, for the de- 
struction of hundreds of thousands of buffaloes. After two or three 
years the results of this wholesale slaughter began to be apparent in 
the thinning of the herds and in their erratic movements and changed 
habits, especially in respect to their migrations. 
During the summer of 1871 straggling bands occurred as far east- 
ward in Northern Kansas as Fossil Creek, while the great herds were 
rarely met with east of the meridian of Fort Hays. In June of that 
year they blackened the prairies from the Saline River to the Republi- 
can Fork. In January, 1872, they had receded several hundred miles 
to the westward of their summer limit, ranging then over Eastern Colo- 
rado. Between the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific Railroads they 
at this time migrated eastward in summer and westward in winter, 
passing with reluctance either of these great highways. At times, 
however, they swept across the Kansas Pacific Railway in immense 
herds, obliging the trains to await their passage.* In consequence of 
this eastward and westward migration they had already worn deep 
trails running in this direction, and at right angles to the older set 
* General Meigs writes that a conductor of the Kansas Pacific Railway informed 
him in the winter of 1872-73, that " while he had been several times delayed by the 
crossing of immense herds going south he had never seen any buffalo returning."- 
MS. Notes on the Buffalo. 536 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
made when their migrations were mainly from the north southward in 
autumn and from the south northward in spring.* From the great 
persecution they had suffered from the hunters, who swarmed down 
upon them from all sides, their movements were already less regular 
than formerly. 
The opening of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad has 
had a far greater influence upon the buffalo than either of the other 
roads, in consequence of the great number of hunters who seized upon 
it as a favorable basis for the prosecution of their terrible work of 
destruction. The story of this destruction and the fatal results attend- 
ing the encroachment of the settlements upon the range of the buffalo 
is well told in the subjoined letter from Dr. W. S. Tremaine, U. S. A., 
kindly written in answer to my inquiries respecting this subject, and 
dated Fort Dodge, Kansas, July 16, 1875: "In regard to the buffalo, I 
would say that when I first came to this post, in 1869, the buffaloes 
ranged in almost countless herds from about where the town of Great 
Bend, on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F6 Railroad, now is, to Fort 
Lyon, Colorado, and from the Platte River to the Red River of Texas. 
Throughout this range you might travel for days and scarcely ever be 
out of sight of buffaloes. This condition remained up to the summer 
and autumn of 1873, when the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F6 was 
completed to this point. Buffalo-hunting for their hides then became 
quite an industry in this neighborhood, and hundreds of thousands 
were slaughtered in this vicinity, so that at the present time a buffalo 
is a rare sight within two hundred miles of Fort Dodge." Dr. Tremaine 
gives the principal range of the Southern Herd of buffaloes as being 
now south of the Kansas line, between the North Fork of the Canadian 
and the Red River of Texas, and from about the 100th meridian to the 
eastern border of New Mexico. "A few small herds," he says, wander 
northward from the main body as far as the Platte country, passing 
along near the eastern boundary of Colorado. Some are also found 
further to the southward between the Red and Pecos Rivers. He 
speaks of the herds as having become very much restricted in range 
and as very much "thinned out." He says : "As regards their present 
numbers, I was told by an officer of cavalry who had scouted last sum- 
mer and winter through the region I have indicated, that during his 
wanderings through this part of the country, which is now considered 
the principal habitat of the Southern Herd, he sawT fewer buffaloes than 
he had seen in a trip from Fort Hays to Fort Dodge (eighty-six miles) 
in 1872." 
Recent reports from Kansas and Colorado agree in respect to the enor- 
mous destruction of buffaloes throughout Kansas, incidentally referred 
to above by Dr. Tremaine. While the range seems not to have been as 
yet very materially circumscribed during the last four or five years, the 
reduction in numbers has been immense, and the vast herds existing 
there five years since are now represented by only scattered remnants, 
so fearfully have their ranks been depleted. 
The incessant persecution of the buffalo along the lines of the two 
great Kansas railways has had the effect to crowd them southward and 
southwestward into Western Texas. In this Indian-infested region, too 
remote from railroads to render it feasible for the hunter to follow them 
for their hides and meat, the herd is now mainly concentrated where it 
is temporarily less exposed to persecution than on the more accessible 
plains of Kansas. The range of the herd thus not only changes with 
* See Bulletin Essex Institute, Vol. VI, pp. 46, 47. ALLEN | 
EXTERMINATION IN EASTERN DAKOTA. 
537 
the seasons of the year, but also from year to year, in consequence of 
attacks upon them at new localities. Unless legal interference, either 
by the States of Kansas, Colorado, and Texas, or by the General Gov- 
ernment, be speedily made, and rigorous restrictions most thoroughly 
enforced, the fate of the buffalo south of the Platte will be a repetition 
of its history east of the Mississippi River, namely, speedy extermina- 
tion. 
Area note occupied by the Southern Herd.-The region south of the 
Platte inhabited by the buffalo is already reduced to a very limited area. 
At the northward their range extends over only the head-waters of the 
Republican, and thence westward to the South Platte, to the northward 
of which river they still sometimes appear, their range thus including 
the small portion of Southwestern Nebraska that lies south of the Union 
Pacific Railway. They range thence southward throughout Western 
Kansas and Eastern Colorado, the extreme western part of the Indian 
Territory, Northern and Western Texas, extending in the latter State 
southward to the 30th parallel, and from the 98th meridian westward 
over the northern portion of the Staked Plains nearly to the eastern 
boundary of New Mexico. In 1873 they ranged to within a hundred 
miles of Santa F6.* 
Region between the Platte River and Parallel of 49°.-Passing to the 
northward of the Platte River, we will consider first the region situated 
between the Platte River and the United States and British boundary, 
or the 49th parallel. The buffalo, as is well known, formerly ranged 
over the whole country drained by the Missouri and its tributaries, as 
well as over the plains of the Red River of the North, and those of the 
Assinniboine and the Saskatchewan. The plains of the Red River, in 
Northern Minnesota and Dakota, formerly connected the great buffalo 
range of the Upper Missouri region with that of the Saskatchewan, 
whilst the Grand Coteau des Prairies was for a long time one of the re- 
gions of their greatest abundance. Beginning with Eastern Dakota, or 
that portion of the Territory east of the Missouri River, embracing the 
Grand Coteau des Prairies, we shall pass thence to the region between 
the Missouri River and the 49th parallel, and, lastly, trace their exter- 
mination over the vast triangular area bounded by the Missouri and 
Platte Rivers and the Rocky Mountains. 
Extermination in Eastern Dakota.-As late as 1850 General John Pope 
stated that the buffalo ranged "in immense herds between the Pembina 
and Shayenne Rivers," and were " found in great numbers, winter and 
summer, along the Red River," being "frequently killed in the immedi- 
ate vicinity of the settlements at Pembina.f Mr. Henry M. Rice also 
states that in the spring of 1847 a party of Red River hunters, num- 
bering twelve hundred carts, went in a body south to Devil's Lake, in 
Minnesota (now Dakota); | while Mr. J. E. Fletcher states that twenty 
thousand buffaloes were at this time annually killed in the country of 
the Sioux and Chippewa Indians, south of the United States and British 
boundary, § mostly within the present Territory of Dakota. The Hon. 
H. H. Sibley has given an interesting account of a buffalo-hunt in East- 
ern Dakota (then a part of Minnesota Territory) in Schoolcraft's great 
work on the Indian Tribes of the United States, || and incorporates 
* H. W. Henshaw, in a letter to the writer, dated March 6, 1875. 
t Report of an Exploration of the Territory of Minnesota. (Congressional Reports, 
31st Congr., 1st Session, Senate Doc. No. 42, p. 27.) 
t Congress. Rep., 31st Congr., 1st Sess., House Ex. Doc., Vol. VIII, No. 51, p. 8. 
§ Ibid., p. 41. 
II Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United 
States, Vol. IV, pp. 101-110. 538 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
therewith a detailed account, furnished him by the Rev. Mr. Belcourt,* 
cf the chase of the buffalo on the Pembina Plains. It contains not 
only much valuable information respecting the peculiar modes of hunt- 
ing pursued by the Red River hunters, but also important statistics re- 
specting the rate of their destruction at the date of writing (1853). 
Mr. A. W. Tinkham, in the "Itinerary" of his route from St. Paul to 
Fort Union, in June and July, 1853, speaks of using the bois de vache 
for fuel on Maple River, and reports killing his first buffalo on the 
Shayenne, one of the chief tributaries of the Red River. At this time, 
he says, large herds roamed over the prairies of the Shayenne River, 
and extended as far south as the South Fork of the Shayenne. He also 
met with recent indications of the buffalo on the White Earth River, f 
Governor Stevens, in speaking of the abundance of the buffalo on the 
Shayenne River, near Lake Zisne, the same year, says: "About five miles 
from camp, we ascended to the top of a high hill, and for a great dis- 
tance ahead every square mile seemed to have a herd of buffalo upon 
it. Their number was variously estimated by the members of the 
party, some as high as half a million. I do not think it is any exaggera- 
tion to set it down at 200,000. I had heard of the myriads of these 
animals inhabiting these plains, but I could not realize the truth of 
these accounts till to-day, when they surpass everything I could have 
imagined from the accounts which I had received.''! 
According to Assistant Surgeon Asa Wall, buffaloes were still com- 
mon about Fort Abercrombie, on the Red River, at late as 1858.§ 
Mr. W. II. Illingworth, the well-known photographer of St. Paul, 
informs me that in 18GG, when he made a journey from St. Cloud 
westward to the Yellowstone, he met with immense herds for two days 
in passing the Coteau des Prairies, west of the James River. They 
seem to have wholly disappeared east of the Missouri soon after this 
date, surviving in Southern Dakota, however, between the James and 
Missouri Rivers, for some years after their extermination over the plains 
of the Red River. As already stated, they were exterminated east of 
the Red River as early as about the year 1850, and, being at that time 
rapidly pressed westward by the Red River hunters, were wholly 
exterminated during the few years next following throughout the whole 
basin of the Red River, and even throughout the whole of the northern 
half of Dakota. In Southern Dakota, between the James and the 
Missouri, they, lingered for some years later, but wholly disappeared 
east of the Missouri prior to the year 1870. 
Region between the Upper Missouri and Forty-ninth Parallel.-The 
former existence of the buffalo over the whole of the region drained by 
the Upper Missouri is well substantiated by the evidences they them- 
selves have left, and which exist in the form of well defined trails and 
osseous remains. When Lewis and Clarke ascended the Missouri in 
1801, they met with them at frequent points along almost its whole 
course, from the mouth of the Big Sioux to the Forks,|| and subsequent 
explorers found them on its remotest sources. As late as 185G this 
* The account given by Mr. Sibley as that furnished by Mr. Belcourt seems to be 
merely a translation of Mr. Belcourt's account of buffalo-hunting by the Red River 
half-breeds originally contained in a letter addressed by Mr. Belcourt to Major S. 
Woods, and dated " St. Paul, November 25, 1845." This document was published by 
Major Woods in his Report of his Expedition to the Pembina Settlement in 1849 (Con- 
gressional Documents of the 31st Congress, 1st Session, House Doc. No. 51, pp. 44-52). 
t Pacific R. R. Expl. and Snr., Vol. I, Governor Stevens's Report, pp. 252-258. 
t Pacific R. R. Rep. of Expl. and Surveys, Vol. XI, pt. 1, p. 59. . 
Med. Statistics U. S. Army, 1855-1860, p. 34. 
|| Expedition, etc., Vol. I, pp. 67, 75, 77, et seq. ALLEN.] 
RANGE BETWEEN MISSOURI AND 49TH PARALLEL. 
539 
whole region was occupied, at least temporarily, by roving bands. 
Lambert, in his general report respecting the topography of this region, 
speaks of the extensive plains between the meridian of Fort Union and 
the Rocky Mountains as being the " pasture-grounds of unfailing millions 
of the uncouth and ponderous buffalo."* Lieutenant Saxon, in his 
report of a journey down the Missouri, from Fort Benton to Fort Union, 
made in 1853, says that during the last few days of their journey, as 
they approached Fort Union, they saw innumerable herds of buffalo- 
cows, in many places extending in every direction as far as the eye 
could reach.! Lieutenant Groger, the same year (October, 1853), also 
found large bands on the Missouri from the Musselshell to the Milk 
River, | and small bands were also seen by Tinkham west of the Great 
Falls, on the Sun River,§ where herds were also observed in January, 
1854, by Lieutenant Groger. || In December, 1853, they occurred in 
great numbers on Big Hole Prairie, on the head of the Jefferson Fork.fi 
They were also reported as occurring on the Milk River, near Camp 
Atchison, and also on other of the neighboring northern tributaries of 
the Missouri. 
Dr. Cooper states that in 1860 " the buffalo herd of the Upper Mis- 
souri was spread from the Rocky Mountains, near latitude 49°, south- 
east," and says that he " found them along the Missouri, from its upper 
Great Bend west to about fifty miles above Milk River, but nowhere in 
great numbers. Remains of their skeletons, left about five years since, 
were abundant west of Fort Benton, and," he adds, il I saw one or more 
old skulls daily in the valley of the Little Blackfoot and Hell Gate 
Rivers (west of the mountains), quite down to the junction with the 
Bitter Root." ** 
Lieutenant M. E. Hogan, 22d United States Infantry, who for some 
years previous had been in the United States military service in the 
Department of Dakota, informed me in 1873 that the buffaloes had 
recently crossed the Marias and Teton Rivers, in Northwestern Montana, 
from the northward, and were abundant throughout the region about 
Fort Shaw, and that there were " millions of buffaloes " on Milk River. 
Respecting the present range of the buffalo between the Missouri 
River and the 49th parallel, and the evidences of their recent occupa- 
tion of this whole belt of country, I am indebted to Dr. Elliott Coues 
for the subjoined important communication. Two seasons spent in this 
region as naturalist of the United States Northern Boundary Survey 
have given him opportunities for collecting much important information 
respecting this region. The communication, dated " Washington, 
March 2, 1875," is as follows : 
" The time when the buffalo ranged in this latitude [parallel of 49°] 
eastward of the Red River of the North passed so long since that the 
traces of their former presence have become effaced. The present gen- 
eration of hunters in Manitoba and adjacent portions of the United States 
trail to the westward, by several well-known routes, in pursuit of robes 
and meat. In travelling from the river I saw no sign whatever until 
in the vicinity of Turtle Mountain, where an occasional weather-worn 
skull or limb bone may be observed. Thence westward to the Mouse 
River, the bony remains multiply with each day's journey, until they 
* Pacific R. R. Rep. of Expl. and Surveys, Vol. I, Governor Stevens's Rep., p. 167. 
t Ibid., p. 264. 
t Ibid., p. 494. 
$ Ibid., p. 369. 
|| Ibid., p. 500. 
51 Ibid., p. 167. 
** American Naturalist, Vol. I, p. 538. 540 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
become common objects; still, no horn, hoof, or patch of hide. In the 
space intervening between this river and the point where the Coteau de 
Missouri crosses the parallel of 49°, quite recent remains, as skulls still 
showing horns, nose-gristle, or hair, and portions of skeletons still lig 
amentously attached, are very frequent. At La Riviere de Lac, a day's 
march west of the Mouse River, there was a grand battue a few years 
since, as evidenced by the numbers of bones, the innumerable deserted 
badger-holes, and the circles of stones denoting where Indian lodges 
stood. Within the Coteau the most recent remains are the rule ; and a 
hundred miles from such edge (nearly north of the mouth of the Fellow- 
stone) living animals were seen in the summer of 1873. 
" Thus comparing the two great basins of the Red River and of the 
Missouri respectively, it will be seen that the animal left the whole 
United States portion of the former before it was driven from parts of 
the Missouri basin equally far east, or even further eastward. This is 
borne out by observations made on my journey from the Mouse River 
due south to Fort Stevenson, on the Missouri. There were few skulls 
(about as many as between Mouse River and Turtle Mountain) until I 
struck the Coteau, within which they at once multiplied. 
"In the western portion of the Red River basin numberless buffalo- 
trails still score the ground, with a general north-south trend. 
" In the summer of 1874 I approached the parallel of 49° in a north- 
westerly course from the mouth of the Yellowstone. The whole country 
offered a fair amount of skeletal remains, in many cases ligamentously 
cohering, and was furrowed with trails. But there were no living animals 
in the region eastward of Frenchman's River, which is one of the first 
of many north-south tributaries of Milk River. A day's march west of 
this river brought us to the edge of the ' Yellowstone Herd,' as the 
northerly division of the buffalo is termed, where the first buffalo were 
seen and killed. Small straggling droves, or single animals, were 
observed every day thence to the vicinity of the Sweet Grass Hills (or 
Three Buttes, as they are called on the map), where they become very 
abundant. In this city many thousands, if not some hundreds of thou- 
sands, passed the season. During the latter part of August we travelled 
for several days in continual sight of droves on every side on the road 
between the Sweet Grass Hills and Fort Benton ; one day the plain was 
uniformly dotted, as far as the eye could reach, in at least a quadrant of 
a circle. 
"In the comparatively short distance between the Sweet Grass Hills 
and the Rocky Mountains we encountered no buffalo, but this was a 
mere fortuitous circumstance for the particular days ; the ' chips ' were 
everywhere. They were traced, however, by their remains into the very 
heart of the Rocky Mountains, at an altitude of at least 5,000 feet; and 
I was informed that the various glades were a winter resort of some of 
the animals that pass that season in this latitude. But I could ob- 
tain no indication that the buffalo ever [here] crossed the mountains. 
Hunters and guides familiar with the region for years agree that this 
barrier is not surmounted, and had never been passed, either within 
their memory or according to tradition ; indeed, the Kootanie Pass has 
been always known as the point where Indians from the westward have 
come annually to hunt on the opposite side. 
" It is sufficiently attested that buffaloes pass the winter in this re- 
gion, or at least have very recently done so. In exploring the Sweet 
Grass Hills, I followed up one gorge where for a mile or so skulls and 
skeletons lay almost touching each other in the cul-de-sac. Here was 
evident indication that a drove, in attempting to cross from the hog-back ALLEN. J 
RANGE BETWEEN UPPER MISSOURI AND PLATTE. 
541 
ou one side to the other, had sunk in the snow which filled the ravine, 
and lost many of their number. The buffaloes are more expert aud 
venturesome climbers than their unwieldy forms would indicate. Upon 
the summits of the Sweet Grass Hills, inaccessible on horseback, and 
where a man can only go about by scrambling, their dung and bones 
are found, with those of the mountain sheep. The hillsides here, and 
the equally steep banks in places along the heads of the Milk River and 
its tributaries, too declivous in their natural state to afford footing to a 
horse or mule, are cut by innumerable hoofs into a series of narrow 
terraces, each a buffalo trail. 
"In the whole region just north of the Milk River, absolutely treeless 
excepting along a part of the stream, and on the Sweet Grass Hills, 
buffalo chips are everywhere at hand for fuel. 
" In descending the Missouri River from Fort Benton, buffalo were 
seen almost daily during that part of the voyage which embraced the 
rapid portion of the river flowing between the bluffs of the Bad Lands. 
Small droves were seen surmounting peaks which, it would seem, only 
a mountain sheep could scale; and in one instance, indeed, the attempt 
was a failure, and the animal rolled down hill in a cloud of dust. No 
more were seen below the mouth of the Musselshell, where the Missouri 
widens and enters a flatter country. The limit on the Missouri corre- 
sponds in longitude, in a general way, with that above noted on the 
parallel of 49°." 
It thus appears that twenty years ago buffaloes were accustomed to 
frequent the whole region between the Missouri River and the 49th par- 
allel, from the western boundary of Dakota, or the 104th meridian, 
westward to the Rocky Mountains, occurring even throughout the 
foot hills of the latter as well as over the head-waters of the Bitter Root, 
or St. Mary's River, one of the sources of Clarke's Fork of the Columbia, 
but that they are now restricted to the region between Frenchman's 
Creek, near the 107th meridian, and the Rocky Mountains, over much 
of which area their occurrence is merely irregular and more or less for- 
tuitous, their main range being between the 110th and the 112th merid- 
ians. 
Region between the Upper Missouri and Platte Rivers.-It is so well 
known that the buffalo formerly ranged throughout this region, that 
there is little need of presenting further evidence of the fact than will 
be given incidentally in tracing the boundaries of their present range, 
and in sketching the history of their extirpation over the greater part 
of this extensive territory. Beginning at the eastward, we find that 
Bradbury in 1810, in crossing from the Platte River northward to the 
Mandan Villages, met with a few buffaloes in what is now Eastern Ne- 
braska, on the Elk Horn River, and that they were then plentiful on 
the Canon Ball and Heart Rivers, in what is now Southwestern Dakota.* 
They lingered in Southwestern Dakota till within a very short time. 
The last buffalo killed near Fort Rice was taken in 1869, when three 
were killed from a herd of ten old bulls that had wandered considerably 
to the eastward of the main herds. According to Dr. W. J. Hoffman, 
to whom I am indebted for other interesting facts relating to the sub- 
ject of the present paper, the buffaloes disappeared from the region be- 
tween the Cheyenne and Grand River Agencies at about the same time 
(1869), although occasional stragglers frequented the plains toward the 
Black Hills till somewhat later. He states that fresh hides were brought 
into the Grand River Agency in 1872, that were obtained about one 
* Bradbury (John), Travels in the Interior of North America in the years 1809, 1810, 
and 1811, pp. 53, 134. 542 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
hundred mites to the westward of that place.* Dr. Hayden also in- 
forms me that a few were found until a few years since* south of the 
Biack Hills, on the sources of the Niobrara and Cheyenne Rivers, from 
which localities they have, however, been since exterminated. 
As already stated, they were abundant about Fort Union at the 
mouth of the Yellowstone, in 1853, and for some distance below this 
point west of the Missouri, where they remained for some years later. 
Dr. Hayden informs me that they were abundant there as late as 1859, 
and that even as late as 1866 they occupied much of the country 
between Fort Union and Fort Pierre. In 1861 Dr. Hayden published 
the following general statement in relation to the range of the buffalo 
at that time on the Upper Missouri. " They occur," he says, " in large 
bands in the valley of the Yellowstone River, and in the Blackfoot 
country, but their numbers are annually decreasing at a rapid rate. 
Descending the Yellowstone in the summer of 1854, from the Crow 
country, we were not out of sight of large herds for a distance of 400 
milesIn 1850 they were seen as low down on the Missouri 
River as the Vermilion, and in 1854 a few were killed near Fort Pierre. 
But at the present time (1861) they seldom pass below the 47th parallel 
on the Missouri. Every year, as we ascend the river, we can observe 
that they are retiring nearer and nearer to the mountainous portions."! 
General W. F. Raynolds, in passing from Fort Pierre westward in 
July, 1859, says that the whole country, for one hundred and forty 
miles, was a dry, desolate tract, a few antelopes forming the only living 
things met with ; " but buffaloes," he says, " have evidently been here, 
and may return at more favorable seasons of the year. Six bulls were 
seen to-day in the distance, as we drove into camp, being our first sight 
of the famous ' lords of the prairie.' We are now approaching the 
Black Hills, however, and will soon have them around us in abun- 
dance.":}: This locality was on the head-waters of the Cheyenne. Again, 
in speaking of the valley of the Yellowstone, he says : " This valley has 
long been the home of countless herds of buffaloWhen my 
party first reached the bluff overlooking the Yellowstone the sight was 
one which in a few years will have passed away forever. I estimated 
that about fifteen miles in length of the wide valley was in view. The 
entire tract of forty or fifty square miles was covered with buffalo as 
thickly as in former days in the West (when cattle were driven to an 
Eastern market) a pasture-field would be which was intended only to 
furnish subsistence to a large drove for a single night. I will not ven 
ture an estimate of their probable numbers." § 
In 1873 I made a journey from Fort Rice, on the Missouri, to the Yel- 
lowstone and Musselshell Rivers, accompanying the " Yellowstone 
Expedition" of that year (General D. S. Stanley commanding) as nat- 
uralist of the expedition. From my report on the collections made I 
quote the following: " Recent signs of the buffalo were first met with in 
the valley of the Yellowstone, near the mouth of the Rosebud,-tracks 
of single old bulls that had passed down to the river for water within a 
period of a few weeks. Above this point considerable numbers seemed 
to have frequented the river valley during the early part of the season 
(1873), and tracks but a few days old were frequent for the last ten 
miles before reaching Pompey's Pillar. The first buffalo seen was 
observed about twelve miles west of Pompey's Pillar. Eight miles 
further west, on the divide between the Yellowstone and the Mussel- 
* In a letter dated April 16,1875. 
t Transact. Amer. Phil. Soc., Vol. XII, 2d Series, p. 150. 
t Exploration of the Yellowstone, p. 27. 
§ Ibid., p. 11. ALLEN.] 
RANGE BETWEEN UPPER MISSOURI AND PLATTE. 
543 
shell, we found large herds had grazed but a day or two before our 
arrival, and fresh tracks of cows and calves, as well as of bulls, were 
abundant. From this point to the Musselshell we were frequently in 
sight of large bands, and quite a number of individuals were killed. 
They moved off rapidly, however, as we approached, and at no time 
were more than a few hundred in sight at once. We found later that 
the valley of the Musselshell and its adjoining prairies had been the 
recent feeding-ground of large herds, immense numbers having evi- 
dently spent the early part of the season there. They seemed not, how- 
ever, to have visited the valley in large numbers before for many years, 
as all the trails and other signs had evidently been made within the few 
weeks immediately preceding our arrival. Traces of ancient trails 
remained, but they were few and insignificant as compared with those 
of the present year. The herds seemed to have occupied the whole 
valley as far as we followed it (from the 109th meridian to the Big Bend), 
as well as the plains on either side. Considerable bands had also ranged 
over the divide between the Musselshell and the Yellowstone, particu- 
larly along the two Porcupine Creeks. General Custer met with small 
herds still further to the eastward, and the main expedition came in 
sight of a few near the mouth of Custer's Creek, where several were 
killed by the scouts. On our return we found that during our absence 
small bands had visited the valley of the Yellowstone itself, and had 
ranged as far down as Powder River, while quite large herds had 
recently passed up Custer's Creek. 
"Occasional skeletons and buffalo chips in a good state of preser- 
vation occur eastward nearly to the Missouri, but the only very recent 
signs observed this year east of the Yellowstone were the tracks of a 
few old straggling bulls a few miles east of the river."* I was also in- 
formed by credible authorities that they then wintered in great numbers 
on the head-waters of the Big-Horn, Tongue, and Powder Rivers, pass- 
ing northward in spring to the Yellowstone and Musselshell. Mr. Rey- 
nolds, a hunter and scout of great experience, and an unquestionable 
authority, informed me that the buffalo range of the Upper Missouri 
embraced the regions of the Powder, Tongue, Big-Horn, and Upper 
Yellowstone Rivers, and thence northward over the Musselshell, Teton, 
and Marias Rivers, to the Milk River. 
The recent rapid extermination of the buffalo over Southwestern Da- 
kota and the adjoining portions of Wyoming has been undoubtedly 
effected mainly by the Sioux Indians, who have of late ranged over this 
region. This at least is the view taken by Colonel Dodge, and appar- 
ently with good reason. He refers to the subject as follows: " The 
great composite tribe of Sioux, driven by encroaching civilization from 
their homes in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, had crossed the Mis- 
souri and thrust themselves between the Pawnees on the east and the 
Crows on the north and west. A long-continued war between the tribes 
taught at least mutual respect, and an immense area, embracing the 
Black Hills and the vast plains watered by the Niobrara and White 
Rivers, became a debatable ground, into which none but war parties 
ever penetrated. Hunted more or less by the surrounding tribes, im- 
mense numbers of buffalo took refuge in this debatable land, where 
they were comparatively unmolested, remaining there summer and win- 
ter in security. When the Pawnees were finally overthrown and forced 
on to a reservation, the Sioux poured into this country, just suited to 
their tastes, and, finding buffalo very plenteous and a ready sale for 
their robes, made such a furious onslaught upon the poor beasts that in 
a few years scarce a buffalo could be found in the extensive tract of 
* Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XVII, pp. 39, 40, 1874. 544 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
country south of the Cheyenne and north and east of the North Platte 
River. This area, in which the buffalo had thus become practically 
extinct, joined on the southwest the Laramie Plains country, and there 
resulted a broad east-and-west belt from the Missouri to Montana, 
which contained no buffalo."* 
I learn from General F. H. Bradley (United States Infantry) that in 
1868, when Forts Smith, Reno, and other military posts in the Black 
Hills region were abandoned, buffaloes were very abundant in all the 
so-called Big Horn country, and that in one day they killed fifty tons of 
meat for garrison use. 
During the period of the government surveys for a railroad route 
from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, during 1853 to 1856, 
buffaloes were met with in great abundance on the southern tributaries 
of the Missouri, between the Great Falls of the Missouri and the mouth of 
the Yellowstone. In passing from Fort Benton southeast to the Mussel- 
shell River, Lieutenant Mullan reports meeting with three lean old bulls 
on Arrow River, large herds on the head of the Judith River, between 
the Girdle and Judith Mountains, and a considerable number along the 
Musselshell .t 
In 1871 no buffaloes occurred in Eastern Wyoming south of the Black 
Hills, and they had also already been long extinct over the Laramie 
Plains, and in the valley of the North Platte in Western Wyoming, 
which region they probably have not regularly frequented since they 
were dispersed, about 1849-50, by the great overland emigration to Cal- 
ifornia. I was informed that none then existed in the territory south of 
the Sweetwater Mountains and the Black Hills. Frdmont, in 1842, con- 
stantly met with large herds as far west as the Laramie River, but none 
were seen on the North Platte above the junction of the Laramie until 
he reached the mouth of the Sweet Water, the grasshoppers and the 
dry weather having destroyed the grass over the Laramie Plains. An 
explanation of their final disappearance from the Laramie Plains has 
been offered by Colonel Richard I. Dodge, which is at least probable. 
He says that according to hunters' traditions the Laramie Plains were 
visited in the winter of 1844-45 "by a most extraordinary snow-storm. 
Contrary to all precedent, there was no wind, and the snow covered the 
surface evenly to the depth of nearly four feet. Immediately after the 
storm a bright sun softened the surface, which at night froze into a crust 
so firm that it was weeks before any heavy animal could make any head- 
way over it. The Laramie Plains, being entirely surrounded by mount- 
ains, had always been a favorite wintering-place for the buffaloes. 
Thousands were caught in this storm, and perished miserably by star- 
vation. Since that time not a single buffalo has ever visited the Laramie 
Plains. When I first crossed these plains, in 1868, the whole country 
was dotted with skulls of buffaloes, all in the last stages of decomposi- 
tion and all apparently of the same age [or period of exposure], giving 
some foundation for the tradition. Indeed, it was in answer to my 
request for an explanation of the numbers, appearance, and identity of 
age [condition] of these skulls, that the tradition was related to me 
by an old hunter, who, however, could not himself vouch for the facts."! 
* Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 5, 1875. 
+ Pacific R. R. Rep. of Expl. and Surveys, Vol. XI, pt. i, p. 59. 
t Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 5, 1875. This and the previous extracts from the Inter- 
Ocean newspaper were sent to this paper by a reporter accompanying the Black Hills 
Expedition of 1875, of which Colonel Dodge was in command, as a portion of an "advance 
chapter" from a forthcoming book on the West by Colonel Dodge. This book, " based 
on personal experience," has recently appeared, with maps and illustrations, under the 
title of "The Hunting Grounds of the Great West." (New York, Messrs. G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons; London, Chatto and Windus). ALLEN.] 
DISTRIBUTION IN BRITISH AMERICA. 
545 
That this may have been the case seems very probable from the fact 
that I found, in returning over these plains in December, 1871, the snow 
so deep and so heavily encrusted that the herds of domestic stock were 
dying from starvation whenever it happened that their owners had not 
provided for such an emergency by laying in a good supply of hay. 
Many animals perished from lack of food and shelter, the occurrence of 
such conditions as a deep snow heavily encrusted being wholly unlooked 
for; and had buffaloes been then living on these plains they could hardly 
have survived the long period during which the ground was inaccessi- 
ble to grazing animals. 
The buffalo has also become exterminated over a large portion of the 
country to the northward of the Sweet Water along the eastern base of 
the Rocky Mountains, extending northward, in fact, over the head- 
waters of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. Dr. Hayden informs 
me that but few were found in 1871 and 1872 on the Upper Yellowstone, 
and that they are now rarely seen above Shield's River, although they 
occurred in the Wind River Valley in 1860. He says, moreover, that 
very few are found on the Three Forks of the Missouri, where they have 
been nearly all destroyed or driven out by the miners. Those that re- 
main are chiefly old bulls, the scattered survivors of the former large 
herds, and which of course will not long remain. He also says that a 
few were met with in the valley of the Gros Ventres as late as 1860, and 
in the valley of the upper part of the Snake River Valley in 1870,-the 
two latter localities of course being on the western slope of the Rocky 
Mountains. 
It thus appears that the present range of the buffalo between the 
Platte and the Missouri is confined to the comparatively small area 
drained by the principal southern tributaries of the Yellowstone, namely, 
the Powder, the Tongue, and the Big Horn Rivers, from which they 
range northward over the middle portions of the Yellowstone and the 
Musselshell Rivers to the Missouri. 
FORMER BOUNDARIES OF THE RANGE OF THE BUFFALO WITHIN THE 
BRITISH POSSESSIONS, AND ITS PRESENT DISTRIBUTION WITHIN 
THAT AREA. 
The range of the buffalo, as previously remarked, formerly extended 
continuously from the plains of the United States northward to Great 
Slave Lake, in latitude 62° to 64° north, being apparently almost as 
numerous over the plains of the Bed River, the Assiuniboine, Qu'appglle, 
both branches of the Saskatchewan, and the Peace River, as over the 
plains of the Missouri. Franklin, in 1820, met with a few at Slave Point, 
on the north side of Great Slave Lake,* and Dr. Richardson states that 
in 1829 they had recently, according to the testimony of the natives, 
wandered to the vicinity of Great Marten Lake, in latitude 03° or 64°.f 
In respect to the distribution of the buffalo in the " Countries," Dr. 
Richardson speaks as follows: "As far as I have been able to ascertain, 
the limestone and sandstone formations lying between the great Rocky 
Mountain ridge and the lower eastern chain of primitive rocks, are the 
only districts in the fur countries that are frequented by the bison. In 
these comparatively level tracts there is much prairie-land, on which 
* "A few frequent Slave Point, on the north side of the lake, bnt this is the most 
northern situation in which they were observed by Captain Franklin's party."-Sabine, 
Zoological Appendix to Franklin's Journey, p. 668. 
t Fauna Boreali-Americana, Vol. I, p. 279. See also Zoological Appendix to Parry's 
Second Voyage, p. 332. 
35 G s 546 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
they find good grass in the summer ; and also many marshes overgrown 
with bulrushes and carices, which supply them with winter food'. Salt 
springs and lakes also abound on the confines of the limestone, and there 
are several well-known salt-licks, where bison are sure to be found at all 
seasons of the year. They do not frequent any of the districts formed 
of primitive rocks, and the limits of their range to the eastward within 
the Hudson Bay Company's territories may be correctly marked on the 
map by a line commencing in longitude 97° on the Red River which flows 
into the south-end of Lake Winipeg, crossing the Saskatchewan to the 
westward of the Basquian hill, and running thence by the Athapescow 
to the east end of Great Slave Lake. Their migrations to the westward 
were formerly limited by the Rocky Mountain range, and they are still 
unknown in New Caledonia and on the shores of the Pacific to the north 
of the Columbia River; but of late years they have found out a passage 
across the mountains near the sources of the Saskatchewan, and their 
numbers to the westward are said to be annually increasing."* The 
range of the buffalo in British America was hence co extensive with the 
prairies, meeting the range of the musk-ox on the north, and the prairies 
and plains of the United States on the south. It was not, however, 
exclusively confined to the plains, and apparently less so at the north- 
ward than toward the south. Besides positively forsaking the more 
exposed portions of the northern plains and seeking refuge in the woods 
during the severer periods of cold in winter, they are said to frequent, 
at all seasons, the timber adjoining the prairie districts. In a later work 
Dr. Richardson refers to the range of this animal as follows: " The 
bison, though inhabiting the prairies in vast bands, frequents also the 
wooded country, and once, I believe, almost all parts of it down to the 
coasts of the Atlantic : but it had not until lately crossed the Rocky 
Mountain range, nor is it now known on the Pacific Slope, except in a 
very few places. Its most northern limit is the Horn Mountain [in lati- 
tude 62]."t To the northward of the Saskatchewan, the prairie country 
is confined to limited areas, and there buffaloes range extensively through 
the open woods.j: The habitat of the bison north of the United States, 
at the beginning of the present century, hence embraced a triangular 
area, extending through about seventeen degrees of longitude (from 96° 
to 113°) on the northern boundary of the United States, decreasing in 
breadth northward to a narrow point at Great Slave Lake. At present, 
however, they are confined within much narrower limits than formerly, 
and are quite absent over large areas that once were among their favorite 
resorts. § 
* Fauna Boreali-Auaericana, Vol. I, pp. 279, 280. 
+ Arctic Searching-Expedition : A Journal of a Boat-Voyage through Rupert's Land 
and the Arctic Sea, American ed., p. 99, 1852. 
t Hind believes that the so-called " prairie" buiialo, as distinguished by the hunters 
from the " wood " buffalo, formerly 11 ranged through open woods, almost as much as 
he now does through the prairies." and Saskatchewan Expedition, Vol. II, 
p. 106. 
§ According to the observations of Mr. W. H. Dall, and others, a, near ally of the buf- 
falo (the Bison antiquus Leidy - B. crassicornis Richardson) formerly existed consider- 
ably to the northwestward of the former range of the living species, extending 
throughout probably nearly the whole of Alaska. The evidences of this consist in the 
occurrence of their fossil remains at different localities in the valley of the Yukon and 
elsewhere. In answer to inquiries of miue, Mr. Dall wrote me, under date of San 
Francisco, Cal., January 23, 1871, as follows, respecting the distribution of these re- 
mains : " Your letter is at hand, and in reply I can only say that the bones of the bison 
are found on the Upper Yukon, from the Ramparts eastward and northward, and also 
at Kotzebue Sound. They are found, like all the remains of tortiary mammals in that 
vegion, on or very near the surface, and are especially abundant on the Kotlo River, 
which falls into the Yukon above Fort Yukon [latitude 66°, longitude 141°,-just west ALLEN.] 
DISTRIBUTION IN BRITISH AMERICA. 
547 
The following abstracts and quotations embrace the more important 
references to the range and extermination of the buffalo in British 
North America, and are arranged nearly in a chronological order. In 
1790 Mackenzie found buffaloes in considerable numbers on Peace 
River, along which they extended westward to the base of the Rocky 
Mountains * At this time they abounded also on the plains between 
the Assinniboine, Red, and Missouri Rivers, as well as on both branches 
of the Saskatchewan and their tributaries.! 
Ross Coxe, in June, 1812, also found the buffalo in small numbers on 
the head-waters of the Assinniboine River and its but from 
all this region they have now nearly or quite disappeared. Hind re- 
ports finding bones and horns of buffaloes on the Assinniboine River, 
between Fort Garry and Prairie Portage, in 1857, but makes no men- 
tion of the occurrence of the animals themselves there at that date, but 
says they were still found on the sage plains further north. The Red 
River hunters at this time, he says, went part to the plains of the 
Saskatchewan, and part to the Yellowstone and Coteau de Missouri for 
their buffaloes.§ Alexander Ross, writing at about the same date, also 
says, " Formerly all this part of the country (Red River Plains] was 
overrun by wild buffalo, even as late as 1810"; but adds, "Of late 
years the field of chase has been far distant from the Pembina Plains."|| 
Simpson reports that buffaloes were abundant on the plains south of 
the Saskatchewan in the winter of 1836, and that the country about 
Carlton House was completely intersected with their deeply-worn trails, 
and strewed with their skeletons; from this region they had been tem- 
porarily driven by the autumnal fires. He also met with a few buffaloes 
on the Clear Water River, a little above its junction with the Athabasca. 
In January, 1840, they were also extremely abundant about Carlton 
House 
Respecting the range and the migrations of the buffalo within the 
British Possessions about the year 1858, Hind observes as follows: " Red 
River hunters recognize two grand divisions of buffalo, those of the 
Grand Coteau and Red River, and those of the SaskatchewanThe 
of the United States and British boundary]. The remains I have seen, with those of 
the elephant (in similar situations), are black and fossilized. The bones of the musk 
ox and mountain goat, on the contrary, are white, and look very recent. The latter 
animal is still rarely found living on the mountains near the Upper Yukon. The 
bison remains which I have seen have been principally horn-cores and the remains of 
the cranium and lower jaws. The indications are that the Elephas primigenius and 
the fossil bison were contemporaries, but that the musk ox was a later comer. How- 
ever, this idea rests merely on the appearance of the bones, as the bones of all (as well 
as the remains of fossil horses) are found together in a bed of bine clay, near the sur- 
face, at Kotzebue Sound, and (barring the horses) all over the Upper Yukon Valley, in 
similar positions, irregularly scattered on the ground. I found the cranium of an ele- 
phant in the grass at the mouth of the Yukon, skulls of musk oxen and bisous on the 
surface in little valleys in the Ramparts, and on the alluvial plain near Fort Yukon." 
In addition to the above, I have since been informed by Mr. Dall that he obtained a 
complete skull, except the lower jaw, on the Sitzikunten River, just below the Ram- 
parts of the Yukon, in about latitude 65° and longitude 151°, and other fragments 
about fifty miles lower down the Yukon. The skull was unfortunately lost during the 
subsequent journey down the river. [The above should have been inserted in connec- 
tion with the history of Bison antiquus, but was accidentally omitted.] 
* Mackenzie (Sir Alexander), Travels to the Polar Sea and to the Pacific Ocean in 
the years 1789-91, Vol. II, pj>. 147, 155, 156, 377. 
t Ibid., pp. Ixi, Ixii, Ixv, Ixix. 
t Adventures on the Columbia River, p. 259. 
§ Hind (H. Y.), Canadian, Red River, Assinniboine, and Saskatchewan Exploring Ex- 
peditions, Vol. II, p. 272. 
|| The Red River Settlement: Its Rise, Progress, and Present State, p. 15. 
V Simpson (Thomas), Narrative of the Discovery of the North Coast of America, Lon- 
don, 1843, pp. 40, 45, 46, 60, 402, 404. 548 
REPORT UNITED "STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
northwestern buffalo ranges are as follow: The bands belonging to 
the Red River Range winter on the Little Souris, and southeasterly 
toward 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 flank of Turtle Mountain to Devil's Lake, and by 
the main river (Red River), to the Shayenne again. In the memory of 
many Red River hunters the buffalo were accustomed to visit the prai- 
ries of the Assinniboine as far 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 accus- 
tomed 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; experience 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 bill- 
sides. These ruts, often one foot deep and sixteen inches broad, would 
converge from the prairie for many miles to a favorite crossing or drink- 
ing place; and they are often seen in regions in w'bich the buffalo is no 
longer a visitor. 
"The great western herds winter between the south and north 
branches of the Saskatchewan, south of the Touchwood Hills, and be- 
yond the north Saskatchewan in the valley of the Athabasca; they 
cross the South Branch in June and July, visit the prairies on the south 
side of the Touchwood Hill range, and cross the Qu'appelle valley any- 
where between the Elbow of the South Branch and a few miles west of 
Fort Ellice, on the Assinniboine. They then strike for the Grand Coteau 
de Missouri, and their eastern flank often approaches the Red River 
herds coming north from the Grand Coteau. They then proceed across 
the Missouri up the Yellow Stone, and return to the Saskatchewan and 
Athabaska as winter approaches, by the flanks of the Rocky Mount- 
ains. We saw many small herds, belonging to the western bands, 
cross the Qu'appelle valley and proceed in single file towards the Grand 
Coteau de Missouri in July, 1858. The eastern bands, which we had ex- 
pected to find on the Little Souris, were on the main river (Red River 
is so termed by the half-breeds hunting in this quarter). They had pro- 
ceeded early thither, far to the south of their usual track, in consequence 
of the devastating fires which swept the plains from the Rocky Mount- 
ains to Red River in the autumn of 1857. We met bulls all moving 
south, when approaching Fort Ellice ; they had come from their winter 
quarters near the Touchwood Hill range. As a general rule the Sas- 
katchewan bands of buffalo go north during the autumn and south dur- 
ing the summer. The Little Souris and main river bands go north- 
west in summer and southeast in autumn.''* Hind also states that the 
buffaloes still freqhented the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains. t 
The Earl of Southesk, in his recently published narrative of his 
sporting adventures in British North America in 18594 makes but 
* Hind (H. Y.), Narrative of the Canadian Red River Expedition of 1857, and of the 
Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expeditions of 1858, Vol. II, pp. 107-109 
See also Vol. I, pp. 295, 306, 336, 342, 356. 
t Ibid, Vol. II, p. 106. 
t Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains, 1875. ALLEN.] 
DISTRIBUTION IN BRITISH AMERICA. 
549 
few references to the buffalo, and adds nothing of much importance to 
our knowledge of its distribution. He speaks, however, of their occur- 
rence on the plains west of Fort Ellice, and of meeting with large herds 
between the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan. He also 
met with their recent remains near Old Bow Fort, on the South Sas- 
katchewan, at the base of the Rocky Mountains. " The plains," he 
says, " are all strewn with skulls and other vestiges of the buffalo, 
which came up this river last year in great numbers. They were once 
common in the mountains. At the Kootanie Plain I observed sOme 
of their wallowing places, and even so high as a secluded little lake near 
where the horses were taken up to the ice bank 1 saw traces of them. 
They are now rapidly disappearing everywhere." A few were also seen 
near the Touchwood Hills, west of Fort Pelly, in November, which was 
about the most easterly point at which they were seen. * 
Mr. B. R. Ross, in speaking of the range of the buffalo in the far north 
in 1861, says that the "strong wood variety comes so far north and 
east as about twenty miles from the mouth of Little Buffalo River, 
near Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake." He adds that it is found 
" most numerously in the vicinity of the salt plains of Salt River. It is 
unknown throughout the country inhabited by any of the Sclave tribes, 
and the point mentioned above may be considered as its farthest limits. 
It is of larger size than the plain variety, of darker color, and more 
thickly furred. The Chipewyans eat its flesh, and make robes and parch- 
ment from the hides." From its scarcity, however, he adds that it does 
not contribute materially to their needs.! 
Captain W. F. Butler, writing in 1872, thus speaks of the region of 
the Touchwood Hills: " This region bears the name of the Touchwood 
Hills. Around it, far into endless space, stretch immense plains of bare 
and scanty vegetation, plains scored with the tracks of countless buf- 
falo, which, until a few years ago, were wont to roam in vast herds be- 
tween the Assinniboine and the Saskatchewan. Upon whatever side the 
eye turns when crossing these great expanses, the same wrecks of the 
monarch of the prairie lie thickly strewn over the surface. Hundreds 
of thousands of skeletons dot the short, scant grass; and when tire 
has laid barer still the level surface the bleached ribs and skulls of 
long-killed bison whiten far and near the dark burnt prairie." | 
Captain Butler crossed the plains from Fort Ellice in a northwest 
direction to Fort Carlton (Carlton House), and journeyed thence up the 
North Saskatchewan River to the base of the Rocky Mountains; but 
he seems not to have met with any living buffalo throughout his jour- 
ney. He again refers to the vast diminution the buffalo has undergone, 
and mentions the wholesale slaughter formerly practised by the Cree 
Indians on the plains of the Saskatchewan, and describes a hunt he 
himself participated in on the plains of Nebraska. Referring to the 
rapidity with which the buffalo is vanishing from the " great central 
prairie land," he says : " Far in the northern forests of the Athabasca a 
few buffaloes may for a time bid defiance to man, but they, too, must 
disappear, and nothing be left of this giant beast save the bones that 
for many an age will whiten the prairies over which the great herds 
roamed at will in times before the white man came."§ 
Captain Butler, in a later work, refers to the existence of buffaloes 
* Ibid., pp. 52, 254, 306. 
t " An account of the Animals useful, in an economic point of view, to the various 
Chipewyan Tribes." Can. Nat. and Geol., Vol. VI, Dec., 1861, p. 440. 
t The Great Lone Land, p. 217, 1863. 
$ The Great Lone Land, pp. 315, 320. 550 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
near the forks of the Athabasca River, and thence northward to the 
eastern end of Athabasca Lake. At Fort Chipewyan Captain Butler, 
on inquiry as to the amount of game destroyed by a good hunter in a 
season, was informed that an Indian named Chripo had killed, among 
other game, ten wood buffalo during the previous winter, showing the 
buffalo to be far from rare in the vicinity of Fort Chipewyan? "The 
wood buffalo and the moose," he further adds, " are yet numerous on 
the .northwest and southwest shores" of Athabasca Lake, but are not 
found further to the eastward. They are, however, scarce, he affirms, 
in comparison with the numbers found there by Hearne. He also states 
that further westward their northward range extends to within a day's 
journey of Fort Vermilion, on the Peace River, and that "there are 
scattered herds, even now [1873], on the banks of the Liard River, as far 
as sixty-one degrees of north latitude."* 
Mr. Huyshe, writing in 1871 of the region about Fort Garry, says: 
" Buffalo are no longer found nearer than three hundred miles west of 
Fort Garry, and are gradually being driven further and further west by 
the advancing stream of civilization." f 
In a valuable communication respecting the present and former range 
of the buffalo in the British Possessions, kindly sent me by Mr. J. W. 
Taylor, U. S. consul at Winnipeg, Mr. Taylor, under date of " United 
States Consulate, Winnipeg, B. N. A., April 20, 1873," writes as follows: 
" In preparing this reply to your note requesting information respecting 
the comparative numbers and present range of the buffalo, I have con- 
sulted Mr. Andrew McDermott, an old and intelligent resident of Sel- 
kirk Settlement, now known as the province of Manitoba. This gentle- 
man, when a very young man, was in the service of the Hudson Bay 
Company, - from 1812 to 1821, - and has since been a successful trader. 
His position in the country is attested by his recent appointment as the 
Manitoba director of the Canada Pacific Railway Company. 
" My informant, in 1818, was in the midst of a large herd, only two 
miles west of Fort Garry, where I am writing. His party stood for an 
hour in the midst of the black moving mass, with difficulty preventing 
themselves, by the constant discharge of fire arms, from being trampled 
to death. Now, in 1873, the nearest point where the animal is found is 
at Woody Hills, upon the International frontier, three hundred miles 
south westwardly, while you must go five hundred miles west to meet large 
bands. Formerly a variety called the wood buffalo was very numerous 
in the forests surrounding Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba, the last sur- 
vivor having been killed only two years ago, on Sturgeon Creek, ten 
miles west of Fort Garry. The wood buffalo is smaller than its congener 
of the plains, with finer and darker wool, and a superior quality of flesh. 
It more resembles the 'bison' of naturalists. 
"The Saskatchewan plains near the Rocky Mountains, have always 
been a great resort of the buffalo, and although the traditions of their 
immense multitudes fifty years ago have hardly been sustained of late, 
yet I am inclined to the opinion that the extension of settlements in 
Dakota and Montana, the navigation of the Missouri by steamers, and 
the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad are concentrating the 
herds which had previously retreated northward from the great over- 
land route now traversed by the Union Pacific Railroad upon the tribu- 
taries of the Saskatchewan. Quite recently, a party of hunters in the 
district adjoining the country of the Blackfoot Indians, in longitude 
* The Wild North Land, pp. 122,130,131,139,142.167, 211. 
t Huyshe (G. L.), The Red River Expedition, p. 230, 1871. ALLEN.J 
DISTRIBUTION IN BRITISH AMERICA. 
551 
110°, latitude 51°, was seven days in passing through a herd. The Sas- 
katchewan district sent 17,930 buffalo-robes through Minnesota to market 
during the year ending'September 30, 1872, while an equal number was 
either consumed in the country or despatched to Europe by vessels from 
York Factory, on Hudson's Bay."* 
During the summer of 1873, Mr. A. R. C. Selwyn made a journey from 
Manitoba to Rocky Mountain House, in describing which he says not a 
single buffalo was met with on the whole journey, although the region 
he traversed was " swarming" with them not many years before. He 
saw only their " skulls whitening on the plains, and their deep-worn 
and grass-grown tracks"-evidences of their former recent existence.! 
Respecting the present range of the buffalo in that portion of the 
British Possessions immediately north of the United States line, I have 
been favored, through Principal J. W. Dawson of McGill College, Mon- 
treal, with the. following important communication from Professor George 
M. Dawson, Geologist of the British and United States Boundary Sur- 
vey, dated McGill College, Montreal, June 3, 1875: " Understanding 
from Principal Dawson that you wish to collect information as to the 
range of the buffalo in British North America, I have marked on the 
inclosed portion of a map the range of the animal on the forty-ninth 
parallel, of which alone I can speak from personal knowledge. During 
the last sixteen years it would appear that the buffaloes have been driven 
back over two hundred miles on the forty-ninth parallel, and now do 
not extend in any force beyond White Mud River, or Frenchman's 
Creek (longitude 107° 30'). They reached this point when we arrived 
there late in June of last summer, and were going north in great herds, 
followed by the Sioux Indians. This migration seems to have ceased 
before about the 20th of July, when they were confined to the limits 
stated on the map.| and remained so till we left the country, in Sep- 
tember. The Sweet Grass Hills form their centre in the vicinity of 
the Line. The pasture is good, and the region is besides a sort of neu- 
tral ground among the Indian tribes. We saw abundant traces of the 
passage of great herds in spring on the upper branches of Milk River, 
and they come in to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. I do not think 
they ever cross the mountains in the vicinity of the forty-ninth parallel, 
though I have seen their bones as far up the South Rootanie Pass as 
the last grassy meadow." 
On the map referred to in the above-given letter, a line drawn along 
Frenchman's Creek or White Mud River is given as the eastern limit 
of the present range of the buffalo, while the region a little to the west 
of this line is marked as the district where "great herds" were seen 
"going north in June." The line drawn parallel to the Little Souris 
River, and about forty miles to the westward of it, following the Coteau 
de Missouri, is given as the "approximate eastern limit of 'buffalo 
chips.'" 
In addition to the information contained in Professor Dawson's letter, 
I find the following in his recent " Report on the Geology and Resources 
of the Region in the Vicinity of the Forty-ninth Parallel," etc.: " From 
what I could learn," says Professor Dawson, " I believe that, at the 
* Captain Butler states that in 1872 " not less than 30,000 robes" found their way to 
the Red River, and that " fully as many more in skins of parchment or in leather had 
been traded or consumed in the thousand wants of savage life." The Blackfoot tribes 
alone are said to kill twelve thousand annually.- Wild North Land, p. 62. 
t Canadian Naturalist, second scries, Vol. Vl(, 1875, p. 199. 
fA belt about seventy-live miles wide, situated on both sides of the 111th meridian, 
but lying mainly between the 111th and 112th meridians, and stretching northward 
toward the South Saskatchewan. 552 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
present rate of extermination, twelve to fourteen years will see the de- 
struction of what now remains of the great northern band of buffalo, 
and the termination of the trade in robes and pemican, in so far as re- 
gards the country north of the Missouri River."* 
/Several western newspapers have recently given accounts of " buffa- 
loes moving eastward." The following, in substance (here copied from 
the New York Daily Graphic, of October, 187G), has been often repub- 
lished by the daily press: " The Winnepeg Free Press notices the arrival 
of immense herds of buffaloes within eighty miles of Red River, after 
ten years of total absence. From all accounts the herds are migrating 
eastward. The Sioux Indians, residing at Devil's Lake, in Dakota, have 
already been on a great hunt, and have returned to their homes with an 
abundance of buffalo-meat and numbers of robes. Travellers from the 
northwest, who lately came into Winnepeg, report very large numbers 
of buffalo very much further east than heretofore, and the Free Press 
urges the importance of legislation to prevent their wanton extermina- 
tion." 
Present liange of the Northern Herd.-From the foregoing it appears 
that what may be termed the great Northern Herd of buffaloes ranges 
from the principal southern tributaries of the Yellowstone northward 
over a large part of Montana, far into British North America, extend- 
ing northward to the wooded region of the Liard, Athabasca, and Peace 
Rivers. To the westward, north of the United States, buffaloes still 
range to the base of the Rocky Mountains, though doubtless somewhat 
irregularly, and usually only in small numbers; while their eastern limit 
does not appear to extend beyond the longitude of Carlton House, or to 
the eastward of the one hundred and sixth meridian. They have thus, 
within the last thirty years, become exterminated over more than half 
of the more fertile portion of the region north of the United States 
formerly occupied by them, including the whole of the vast prairie re- 
gion drained by the Assinniboine and Qu'appelle Rivers, and are now 
confined principally to the arid plains between the two forks of the 
Saskatchewan, where, as Professor Dawson believes, they cannot sur- 
vive for many years longer. The extent of their range north of the 
North Saskatchewan seems not to have become greatly restricted since 
Richardson, Hearne, and Franklin visited this region; but they doubt- 
less occur there in far smaller numbers than formerly. 
GENERAL REMARKS RESPECTING THE RAPID DIMINUTION OF THE 
BUFFALO, AND ITS EVIDENT DESTINY OF SPEEDY TOTAL EXTER- 
MINATION. 
It thus appears that the buffalo has become so reduced in numbers, 
and so circumscribed in its range, that, instead of roaming over nearly 
half of the continent, as formerly, it is restricted to two small widely- 
separated areas, the southern of which embraces portions of Texas, 
Colorado, and Kansas, scarcely exceeding in area the smaller of these 
States, while the northern embraces only a larger portion of the Terri- 
tory of Montana and an adjoining area to the northward of nearly equal 
extent. Even as late as the beginning of the present century the buf- 
falo occupied the whole of the region between the Mississippi and the 
Rocky Mountains, and extended from the Rio Grande on the South to 
Great Slave Lake on the north, and also over a considerable area west 
of the Rocky Mountains, or through thirty-five degrees of latitude and 
* Report on the Geology and Resources of the Region in the Vicinity of the Forty 
ninth Parallel, etc., 1875, p. S9G. ALLEN.] 
BUFFALO DESTINED TO SPEEDY EXTERMINATION. 
553 
about twenty degrees of longitude. This immense habitat of almost a 
third of the continent has been reduced iu three-fourths of a century to 
a region not larger in the aggregate than the present territories of 
Dakota and Montana. Over a large part of the foriner vast region they 
inhabited they were as numerous as they now are in Western Kansas 
or Northern Texas, and ranged at different seasons over the whole. 
Particular portions of this area have ever formed their favorite places 
of resort, where they were sure to be found at almost any season of the 
year. There is, for instance, abundant historic evidence that over 
the plains of Kansas, especially near the forks of the Platte, along 
the Republican, the Pawnee, the Canadian, and other tributaries of 
the Arkansas, they were as numerous when these parts were first 
visited by the early explorers as they have ever been since, and that 
subsequent travellers have always found them in immense numbers at 
all these points, the plains there literally swarming with them. 
In this connection two questions naturally arise, especially in the 
minds of those not fully conversant with the subject: Have the buffalo 
really decreased to the extent these statements imply ? or have they 
simply been driven in by the "encroachments of civilization " and con- 
centrated upon a smaller area ? Not a few otherwise intelligent persons, 
on visiting Western Kansas or Northern Texas and seeing the herds 
which there recently literally blackened the plains, at once adopt the 
latter hypothesis, and proclaim that this vast amount of talk about the 
decrease of the buffalo is ail "nonsense"; that they are just as nu- 
merous as ever, and are not at all decreasing; that the extermination 
of the wolves and the Indians more than compensates for the slaughter 
made by the professional hunters and by the numerous sporting parties 
from the East.* The hunters often adopt the same theory, from the 
most evident reason of self-interest, fearing that some restrictions, 
which will act unfavorably upon their business, maybe placed upon the 
wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter now carried on; yet the more 
candid are willing to admit that, at the present rate of destruction, 
the buffalo can last but a few years longer. That such is the truth is 
evident on a moment's reflection, when one has a full knowledge of the 
facts. Less than fifty years ago the buffaloes swarmed in as great-or 
certainly in very nearly as great-numbers as at the present time, not 
only over the regions they now frequent, but at the same time over the 
Laramie Plains, over much of the Green River Plateau, over the head- 
waters of the Colorado and Columbia Rivers, over the plains of the 
Yellowstone, and especially over the vast plains of the Red River of 
the North and the Grand Coteau de Missouri; throughout all of which 
region they have been gradually exterminated, leaving nothing to mark 
their former presence but their rapidly-crumbling skeletal remains and 
their well-worn trails. Over much of this region they have been not 
merely driven out and pressed on to some more secure retreat, but 
actually exterminated, the vast majority being hilled on the spot, as we 
have seen was the case east of the Mississippi during the last quarter 
of the eighteenth century. 
* In General Meigs's MS. notes on the buffalo, already quoted, he says : " It is a ques- 
tion whether the buffalo west of the Mississippi have diminished or increased in num- 
bers to this time," and quotes General Sheridan's opinion in confirmation of this view. 
He says : " General Sheridan, the year after the Grand Duke of Russia hunted with 
him ou the Kansas Pacific, told me that he thought there were probably more buffalo 
that year than there had ever been before. He had travelled through seventy miles < f buf- 
falo. He thought the killing by strychnine of wolves for the hides had saved many 
buffalo-calves, and the hostilities with Indians had prevented them from hunting as 
freely as usual for some years. 554 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
This shows with the utmost certainty what is to be the destiny of this 
former " monarch of the prairies," unless rigidly protected by legal re- 
strictions, defining not only the seasons at which the animals may be 
killed, but also protecting the young and the bearing females. At the 
present time, as well as heretofore, those animals are most sought after 
on which the perpetuation of the race depends,-the young animals of 
both sexes and the cows. The older bulls are alike generally useless both 
to the Indian and the white hunter. The skins of cows are alone used 
by the Indians in furnishing themselves with robes; the young and 
middle-aged cows are regarded as especially desirable by the white 
hunters, since they afford the best meat for the market, although along 
with them are killed yearlings, and two- and three-year-olds of both 
sexes; but bulls older than live or six years are not generally desired, 
though many have of late years been killed merely for their hides. The 
hunting season being chiefly in the fall and winter, the cows are then 
with young, and thus two animals are killed in securing one. 
Recent Destruction of the Buffalo in Kansas.-Some idea of the havoc 
recently made with the buffalo in Kansas can be formed from the follow- 
ing well-attested statements. At the time of the completion of the At- 
chison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad to Dodge City, which occurred 
September 23, 1872, the principal trade of the town consisted in the 
''outfitting of hunters, and exchange for their game." The number of 
hides shipped during a period of three months, beginning with this date 
(September 23), is reported to have been 43,029, and the shipment of 
meat for the same time 1,430,290 pounds.* The forty-three thousand 
hides of course represent forty-three thousand dead buffaloes, and the 
one million and a half pounds of meat-the saddles only being saved- 
represent at least six or seven thousand more, making a total of at least 
fifty thousand killed in three months. The same authority states that 
the returns for the January following exceeded those of the preceding 
months by over one hundred and fifty per cent., thus making the number 
of buffaloes killed merely "around Fort Dodge and the neighborhood," 
for this period of four months, exceed one hundred thousand! This, too, 
is aside from those killed in " wanton cruelty, miscalled sport, and for 
food for the frontier residents." 
Another report of about the same date, referring to a locality about 
one hundred miles southeast of Fort Dodge, says: "Thousands upon 
thousands of buffalo hides are being brought here [Wichita, Kansas] by 
hunters. In places whole acres of ground are covered with their hides, 
spread out, with their fleshy side up, to dry. It is estimated that there 
are, south of the Arkansas and west of Wichita, from one to two thou- 
sand men shooting buffalo for their hides alone." t Another account | 
states that during the season of 1872-73 not less than two hundred thou- 
sand buffaloes were killed in Kansas merely for their hides. § It is also 
stated that in 1874, on " the south fork of the Republican, upon one 
spot, were to be counted six thousand five hundred carcasses of buf- 
faloes, from which the hides only had been stripped. The meat was 
not touched, but left to rot on the plains. At a short distance hun- 
dreds more of carcasses were discovered, and, in fact, the whole plains 
were dotted with the putrefying remains of buffaloes. It was estimated 
* Forest and Stream, February, 1873. 
+ Wichita (Kansas) Eagle. 
+ Forest and Stream, Oct. 15, 1873. 
§ General M. C. Meigs in his MS. notes says that one hundred and eighty thousand 
hides are reported to have passed over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F6 road alone 
in a single season. ALLEN.] 
BUFFALO DESTINED TO SPEEDY EXTERMINATION. 
555 
that there were at least two thousand hunters encamped along the plains 
hunting the buffalo. One party of sixteen stated that they had killed 
twenty-eight hundred during the past summer, the hides only being 
utilized." The same account says that the extent of the slaughter of 
the buffalo for their hides was so great that the market for them 
became glutted to such a degree that whereas a few years before they 
were worth three dollars apiece at the railroad stations, skins of bulls 
would now bring only a dollar, and those of cows and calves sixty and 
forty cents respectively.* While on the plains in 1871,1 had an oppor- 
tunity of witnessing some of the evidences of the wholesale slaughter of 
buffaloes for their hides, as practised at that time along the line of the 
Kansas Pacific Bailway in Northwestern Kansas, where sometimes 
several scores and even hundreds of decaying carcasses, from which 
nothing but the hides had been taken, could be seen from a single point 
of view. During the season of 1871 meat and hides representing over 
twenty thousand individuals were shipped over the Kansas Pacific Kail- 
way. 
Mr. W. N. Byers, editor of the " Rocky Mountain News," in referring 
to this wholesale slaughter (in the letter previously quoted), character- 
izes it as "simply inhuman and outrageous." He adds: "The slaugh- 
ter-ground is mainly Kansas, reaching only into the edge of Colorado. 
Practised hunters follow the herds day alter day, and shoot themdown 
by scores. Sixty, seventy, eighty or more a day is no unusual number. 
A good shooter will keep five or six 'skinners' at work. I heard a 
young man say within a week past that during the winter of 1873-74 he 
killed over three thousand buffaloes,-in one day eighty-five, in another 
sixty-four," etc. 
Another writer thus refers to the same subject: "The butchery still 
[summer of 1875] goes on. Comparatively lew buffalo are now killed, 
for there are comparatively few to kill. I was, in October of 1874, on a 
short trip to the buffalo region south of Sidney Barracks. A few buf- 
falo were encountered, but there seemed to be more hunters than buffa- 
loes. The country south of the South Platte is without water for many 
miles, and the buffaloes must satisfy their thirst at the river. The south 
bank was lined with hunters. Every approach of the buffaloes to water 
was met by rifle bullets, and one or more bit the dust. Care was taken 
not to permit the others to drink, for then they would not return. Tor- 
tured with thirst, the poor brutes approach again and again, always to 
be met by bullets, always to lose some of their number. But for the fa- 
voring protection of night the race would before now have been exter- 
minated. In places favorable to such action, as the south bank of the 
Platte, a herd of buffalo has, by shooting at it by day and by lighting 
fires and firing guns at night, been kept from water for four days, or 
until it has been entirely destroyed. In many places the valley was 
offensive from the stench of putrefying carcasses. At the present time- 
the southern buffalo can hardly be said to have a range. The term ex- 
presses a voluntary act, while the unfortunate animals have no volition 
left. They are driven from one water-hole to meet death at another. 
No sooner do they stop to feed than the sharp crack of a rifle warns 
them to change position. Every drink of water, every mouthful of 
grass, is at the expense of life, and the miserable animals, continually 
harassed, are driven into localities far from their natural haunts,-any- 
where to avoid the unceasing pursuit. A few, probably some thou- 
sands, still linger about their beloved pastures in the Republican coun- 
try. few still hide in the deep canons of the Cimarron country, but 
* Baird's Aunual Record of Science and Industry for 1874, p. 304. 556 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
the mass of southern buffalo now living are to be found far away from 
the dreaded hunter, on a belt of country extending southwest across the 
upper tributaries of the Canadian, across the northern end of the Staked 
Plain to the Pecos Biver. The difficulty of getting the hides to market 
from these repaote and Indian-infested regions is some guaranty that 
the buffalo will not be extinct for a few years."* 
These facts are sufficient to show that the present decrease of the 
buffalo is extremely rapid, and indicate most clearly that the period of 
his extinction will soon be reached, unless some strong arm is interposed 
in his behalf. As yet no adequate game laws for the protection of the 
buffalo, either by the different States and Territories included within its 
range, or by the General Government, have been enacted. In a country 
so sparsely populated as is that ranged over by the buffalo, it might be 
difficult to enforce a proper law, yet the parties who prosecute the busi- 
ness of buffalo-hunting professionally are so well known that it would 
not be difficult to intercept them and bring them to justice, if found 
unlawfully destroying the buffalo. It is evident that restrictions should 
be made, not only in respect to season, but the young and the bearing 
females should be protected at all seasons. The Government might 
even set apart certain districts within which the buffalo should be con- 
stantly exempt from 
Since this memoir was originally published, the following has appeared 
from the pen of Mr. William Blackmore, of London, England, commu- 
nicated to the London Field, Farm, and Garden, under date of October 
23, 1376. Mr. Blackmore writes from ample experience in the "Buffalo 
country," and puts the case none too strongly. I give his communication 
almost entire, suppressing merely matter based on the statements of 
Colonel Dodge, already published in the present memoir: 
EXTERMINATION OF THE BUFFALO OR AMERICAN BISON. 
Sib: The interesting account of the threatened extermination of the buffalo on the 
North American continent contained in your last number induces me to give some 
further details, and to add my testimony to that of Mr. Allen as to the wanton destruc- 
tion of these animals for their hides during the last few years. 
In a book by Col. R. J. Dodge, of the United States Army, called "The Hunting 
Grounds of the Great West," now in the press, and about to be published by Messrs. 
Chatto and Windus, a long account of the destruction of buffaloes by professional 
« buffalo skinners" is given, together with a map showing the buffalo range as it ex- 
isted in 1830, and as it now exists. Colonel Dodge also gives a series of carefully pre- 
pared statistics, procured by him from the railroad returns, and other authentic sources, 
from which it appears that the total destruction of the " Black Cattle of Illinois," 
during the three years 1872, 1873, and 1874, amounted to upward of four millions 
and a half (not between three and four millions annually, as stated by Mr. Allent), 
out of which number upward of three millions were killed for the mere sake of their 
hides. When in the West in 1872,1 satisfied myself by personal inquiries that the 
number of buffaloes then being slaughtered for their pelts was at least one million per 
annum. This estimate was considered excessive, but the recent statistics furnished 
by Colonel Dodge verify its accuracy. 
* Colonel Richard I. Dodge.-See Chicago Inter-Ocean of August 5, 1875, 
t Respecting this matter the following suggestions were made in Professor Baird's 
11 Annual Record of Science and Industry" for 1874, p. 304: "As these animals range 
almost entirely within the Territories of the United States, it is within the province 
of Congress to enact laws prohibiting their destruction, but the difficulties lie in the 
matter of enforcing them. Possibly some provision for seizing and confiscating the 
green hides, along certain lines of railway or during certain seasons of the year, as a 
part of the penalty to be attached to the violation of the law on the subject, might 
accomplish the result; but, at any rate, the subject is one that demands the prompt 
attention of legislators, in view of the relationship of these animals to the welfare of 
the Indians, and the reaction which their destruction will produce upon the scattered 
white settlements in the vicinity of the range of both buffaloes and Indians." 
t This estimate refers to the destruction of the buffalo throughout its entire range, 
not simply to its destruction in Kansas, as here, represented,-J. A. A. ALLEN.] 
BUFFALO DESTINED TO SPEEDY EXTERMINATION. 
557 
lu the autumn of 18G8, while crossing the plains on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, for 
a distance of upward of 120 miles, between Ellsworth and Sheridan, we passed through 
an almost unbroken h«rd of buffalo. The plains were blackened with them, and more 
than once the train bad to stop to allow the unusually large herds to pass. Standing 
on the crest of a low hill near Monument Station at sunset, on a fine day in October, 
from whence I could see around me in all directions for a distance of from ten to twenty 
miles, there was nothing but herds of buffalo in sight; so far as I could see with a pow- 
erful opera-glass, nothing but Indian cattle were visible, quietly browsing in small 
groups of from twenty to fifty each. A few years afterward, when travelling over the 
same line of railroad, it was a rare sight to see a few herds of from ten to twenty buf- 
falo. A like result took place still further southward, namely, between the Arkansas 
and Cimmaron Rivers. In 1872, while on a scout for about 100 miles south of Fort Dodge 
into the Indian Territory, we were never out of sight of buffalo. In the following au- 
tumn, on travelling over the same district, while the whole country was whitened with 
bleached and bleaching bones, we did not meet with buffalo until we were well into 
the Indian Territory, and then only in scanty bands. During this autumn, w'hen rid- 
ing for a distance of from thirty to forty miles along the north bank of the Arkansas 
River to the east of Fort Dodge, there was a continuous line of putrescent carcasses, so 
that the air was rendered pestilential and offensive to the last degree. The hunters 
had formed a line of camps along the banks of the river, and had shot down the buffalo 
night and morning as they came to drink. In order to give an idea of the number of 
these carcasses, it is only necessary to niention that I counted sixty-seven on one spot 
not covering four acres. 
Colonel Dodge gives an instance of having himself couuted 112 carcasses inside a 
semicircle of 200 yards radius, all of which were killed by one man from the same spot, 
and in less than three-quarters of an hour. The greatest number of buffalo killed from 
one stand by one man was 133. In a conversation I had at Dodge City with one of the 
leading buffalo-hunters, who was the proprietor of one of the best "skinning outfits" 
in Kansas, he told me that he usually killed only about eighty per day, as he found 
that his three nieu could not well skin more; and, in reply to my inquiry as to the 
largest number he had ever shot from one stand, he gave me the above figures, adding 
that he had frequently killed all that he wanted for the day's skinning from oue 
stand. 
This great loss of good and wholesome animal food, all of which, with a little judg- 
ment and foresight, and by imposing reasonable restrictions on the slaughter of this 
game, could have been utilized, will be better understood by reference to the statistics 
of cattle in other countries. On reference to the official agricultural returns of Great 
Britain, the United Kingdom, British Possessions, and foreign countries, it will be 
seen that the wanton and wasteful slaughter for the three years in question (and in 
making the comparison I am keeping to the illegitimate slaughter for hides, and not 
legitimate slaughter for food) swept away more buffaloes than there are cattle in Hol- 
land and Belgium, or three-fourths of the cattle in Ireland, or one-half of the cattle of 
Great Britain. 
The result, therefore, would be the same as if a fearful murrain in one year had de- 
stroyed the whole of the cattle in Holland and Belgium, or in the same time if either 
three-fourths of the cattle of Ireland or one-half of those of Great Britain had been 
swept away by a plague as great as that of Egypt. 
The citizens of the United States will better realize this great waste if they consider 
that this destruction amounted annually to nearly three times the number of the an- 
nual drives of cattle from Texas, which range from 350,000 to 500,000 head per annum, 
or that it would have been the same during the three years as if all the cattle in Can- 
ada or half of those in Texas had been carried off by some dire disease. 
The mere loss of food, however, is not the only evil which has resulted from this 
wastefulness and wantonness. Many of the wild Indians of the plains, deprived of 
their ordinary sustenance, Government rations not being forthcoming, and driven to 
desperation, have taken to the war-path, so that during the present war many of the 
Cheyennes, and some of the young braves from the friendly Red Cloud and Spotted 
Tail agencies, have left their reservations and joined the hostile Sioux under Sitting 
Bull. The hardy settler and pioneer of the plains, who always looked to the buftalo 
for his winter supply of meat, has been deprived of this resource, and complains as 
bitterly as any of this slaughter for pelts. 
In 1873, when the settlers in Kansas were suffering from the destruction of their 
crops by the ravages of the grasshoppers, troops were considerately sent by the Gov- 
ernment to the Republican to kill meat for the starving families. When the soldiers 
arrived, however, at their hunting-grounds there was but little meat for them to kill, 
as the " buffalo-skinners" had anticipated them, and had slaughtered nearly every 
buffalo in the district. 
The necessity, as suggested by Mr. Allen, for protection of the buffalo by legislation 
is self-apparent. With the great economy endeavored to be introduced into each de- 
partment of the Government qf the United States, it is difficult to understand how the 558 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Executive, while they enforce a heavy tax upon each seal which may be killed in 
Alaska, has neglected to avail themselves of such a fruitful source of revenue as that 
which might be derived from buffalo pelts. A tax of $5 on each skin,* which could 
have been easily imposed and collected- under heavy penalties and forfeiture of all 
skins not having the Government dutys-tamp thereon-would realize not less than 
$1,000,000 per annum, even supposing that the number of buffaloes annually killed for 
their skins were only 200,000 in lieu of upward of a million. The number slaughtered 
for their skins, with a tax on each skin of $5, would, during the three years in ques- 
tion, have produced a gross revenue of $15,000,000, or nearly £3,000,000 sterling. 
I suggested this remedy at the time, but, although referred to by the press, it was 
not attended to, and it is now almost too late. It is of little use to " lock the stable- 
door after the steed has been stolen." 
The evils to the citizens of the United States arising from this wholesale and wanton 
destruction of buffalo during the three years referred to may bo summarized as fol- 
lows : 
1. Loss of the good and nutritious meat of upward of 3,000,000 of buffalo. 
2. Loss of revenue to the United States of $15,000,000, assuming that a reasonable 
tax of $5 had been imposed on each pelt. 
3. Principal Indian tribes on the plains being deprived of their annual supply of 
food for the winter, and only receiving short rations on their reservations, driven on 
the war-path. 
4. Cost of Indian wars in the lives of the citizens of the United States and money. 
5. Pioneer settlers deprived of their supply of winter food. Prior to 1870 the west- 
ern settlers, from Eastern Kansas to the base of the Rocky Mountains, looked to the 
buffalo as their winter store-house. 
HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL REMARKS RESPECTING THE DESTRUC- 
TION AND RECKLESS WASTE OF THE BUFFALO. 
In addition to the statistics already given relating to the recent de- 
struction of the buffalo in Kansas, it seems fitting in this connection to 
here append such additional statistical data as can be conveniently 
gathered concerning its destruction at large, together with a few remarks 
in respect to the causes and motives that have led to such a waste of 
life, and the agencies that have effected it. 
The excitement of the chase, as is well known, seems almost universally 
to beget a spirit of wanton destructiveness of animal life. Wherever civ- 
ilized man has met with the larger mammalia in abundance, as has often 
happened in the experience of explorers and pioneer settlers of newly 
discovered countries, the temptation to slaughter for the mere sake of 
killing seems rarely to be resisted. In the case of the carnivorous 
species an exterminating persecution is often pardonable, and to some 
extent necessary. The fur-bearing species, even when hunted to excess, 
are seldom destroyed wantonly, though often imprudently, the trapper 
blindly considering only his immediate profits. In the case of the harm- 
less herbivorous species, the ungulates especially, self-interest, it would 
seem, would prompt an economical treatment of the game in newly set- 
tled districts. But the history of America shows that no such principle 
has here been regarded, where other animals than the buffalo-as the 
elk, moose, deer, prong-horn, and mountain sheep-have been slaugh- 
tered with the utmost recklessness. When stress of weather, for in- 
stance, or other circumstances, have brought these animals within the 
hunter's power, scores and even hundreds have often been killed by single 
parties already so well supplied with the products of the chase that they 
had no need for and could make no use of the animals thus destroyed. 
* This would, perhaps, be an advisable expedient, but would not result in an exten- 
sive revenue to the Government, as, if rigidly enforced, it would amount to practical 
prohibition, as the hides taken by the " skinners " rarely bring more than $3 each, and 
net them very much less. It would none the less afford thorough protection to the 
buffalo were the enforcement of such a provision practicable.-J. A. A. ALLEN.] 
DESTRUCTION AND RECKLESS WASTE OF BUFFALO. 
559 
The buffaloes, from their great numbers and the little tact required in 
their capture, have probably been the victims of indiscriminate, improvi- 
dent, and wanton slaughter to a greater extent than any other North 
American animal. As already stated, thousands are still killed annually 
merely for so-called "sport," no use whatever being made of them; 
thousands of others of which only the tongue or other slight morsel is 
saved; hundreds of thousands of others lor their hides, which yield the 
hunter but little more than enough to pay him for the trouble of taking 
and selling them; while many more, though escaping from their would- 
be captors, die of their wounds and yield no return whatever to their 
murderers.* Of the hundreds of thousands that for the last few years 
have annually been killed, probably less than a fourth have been to any 
great extent utilized. While this wanton and careless waste has ever 
characterized the contact of the white race with the sluggish and inof- 
fensive bison of our plains and prairies, the Indians have likewise been 
improvident in their slaughter of this animal, often killing hundreds or 
thousands more during their grand annual hunts than they could pos- 
sibly use, or from which they saved merely the tongues. The wolves 
were formerly also a great check upon the increase of the buffalo, but 
the hunters by means of poison have reduced their number much more 
rapidly than even that of the buffalo, so that the influence of the wolves 
in hastening the extirpation of the buffalo is now but slight. The In- 
dians, too, have vanished before the western advance of the white man 
more rapidly even than the buffalo, so that the destruction of the buf- 
falo by the Indians is now relatively far less than formerly. Hence the 
opinion, as stated in the preceding pages, has been advanced, and to 
some extent publicly advocated, that the present rate of the decrease 
of the buffalo is actually less than formerly, notwithstanding the vast 
numbers annually killed by white hunters, in consequence of the greatly 
reduced, numbers of the wolves and the Indians. A slight glance at the 
history of the decline of the buffalo, however, is sufficient to at once in- 
dicate the fallacy of such an opinion; and none are better aware of this 
than the most active participators in their destruction,--the professional 
buffalo-hunters themselves,-many of whom are candid enough to admit 
that, through the almost utter extermination of the buffalo, their pres- 
ent occupation will soon pass away, unless the general or local govern 
ments enforce the most peremptory restrictions upon their slaughter. 
The Indians, prior to the discovery of the continent by Europeans, 
appear not to have seriously affected the number of buffaloes, their 
natural increase equalling the number destroyed both by the Indians 
and the wolves. When the Jesuit missionaries penetrated the range 
of the buffalo east of the Mississippi, in the seventeenth century, 
they found this animal the main subsistence of the Indian tribes, 
as it doubtless had been for centuries, its flesh serving them for food, its 
skins for shields, clothing, and tents, and its hair, wool, horns, boots, 
and bones for various articles of ornament and use. No sooner, how- 
ever, had Europeans made settlements within its range, than the buffa- 
loes began to disappear, and were either wholly destroyed or driven 
from their favorite haunts in the short space of a very few years. The 
destruction increased with the increase of the white population till they 
.* Professional buffalo-hunters of the Kansas plains repeatedly assured me that they 
believe that an average of not more than one in three of the buffaloes killed by them 
were secured and made use of. From extended observations, however, I felt convinced 
that this was quite too high an estimate of the proportion unrecovered of those killed. 
Yet the waste is actually enormous, even in the contingencies of hunting for legitimate 
purposes, namely, for frontier consumption and shipment to Eastern markets. 560 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
were totally exterminated east of the Mississippi (at least, south of the 
present State of Minnesota), as already shown, prior to the beginning 
of the nineteenth century. Even as late as fifty years ago they occu- 
pied a considerable area west of the Rocky Mountains, all the extensive 
parks and valleys within these mountains, and all the vast plains and 
prairies between them and the Mississippi River. The fur-hunters and 
trappers appear to have begun at this date to contribute appreciably 
toward their rapid diminution, but not until the establishment of the 
"overland trails," and the constant passing of large emigrant parties 
across the plains, did their numbers here become very greatly dimin- 
ished. Steadily pressed back on their eastern boundary by advancing 
settlements, they were at the same time rapidly thinned along the line 
of the great emigrant routes. These thoroughfares becoming from year 
to year more numerously travelled, especially the more northern route by 
way of the South Pass, the buffaloes were driven to the right and left 
of the line of travel, till finally by this intersection their range was 
divided into two essentially distinct regions. The construction of the 
Union Pacific Railroad completely severed the northern from the south- 
ern herds, while the Kansas Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka, and 
Santa Fe Roads opened up new highways to their most populous holds. 
In the mean time adventurers and miners either gradually exterminated 
them in the parks and valleys of the mountains, or drove them east- 
ward into the plains, while they were at the same time preyed upon by 
the great buffalo-hunting parties from the Red River Settlements and 
the United States, until they have dwindled to a few hard-pressed 
bands lingering chiefly in the least-frequented parts of their formerly 
almost undisturbed haunts. 
A century ago the rapid extermination of the buffalo had begun to 
attract the attention of travellers, Romans, as early as 1776, alluding to 
the wanton destruction of " this excellent beast, for the sake of perhaps 
his tongue only."* As early as 1820 Major Long thought it highly 
desirable that some law should be enforced for the preservation of the 
bison from wanton destruction by the white hunters, who, he said, were 
accustomed to attack large herds, and from mere icantonness slaughter 
as many as they were able and leave the carcasses to be devoured by 
the wolves and birds of prey, t 
Gregg, in 1835, also alludes to the wanton slaughter of these animals 
by travellers and hunters, and the still greater havoc made among them 
by the Indians, who often kill them merely for their skins and tongues. 
Their total annihilation he regarded as only a question of time, although 
he believed that if they were only killed for food, their natural increase 
would perhaps replenish the loss. | Almost every intelligent traveller 
who has crossed the plains or spent much time in the buffalo country 
has also called attention to this exterminating slaughter, and predicted 
their complete annihilation at no very distant date. Some writers 
believed twenty or thirty years ago that they would hardly survive to 
the present time unless protected by the government. 
Dr. Leidy, in 1852, says: "The day is not far distant when it [the 
buffalo] will become quite extinct, unless protected by a munificent 
republic, as has been done by the Emperor of Russia in the case of the 
aurochs, or European bison." § Professor Baird, writing at about the 
same time, says: "Still, vast as these herds are, their numbers are much 
* Natural History of Florida, p. 174. 
t Long's Expedition, Vol. I, p. 482. 
t Commerce of the Prairies, Vol. II, p. 213. 
§ Mem. Extinct Species of American Ox, p. 4 (Smith. Contrib., Vol. V, Art. iii.) ALLEN.]] 
STATISTICS RELATING TO DESTRUCTION OF BUFFALO. 
561 
less than in earlier times, are diminishing with fearful rapidity. 
Every year sees more or less change in this respect, as well as altera- 
tions of their great line of travel. . . . . If it were possible to enforce 
game laws, or any other laws on the prairies, it would be well to attach 
the most stringent penalties against the barbarous practice of killing 
buffalo merely for the sport, or perhaps for the tongues alone. Thou- 
sands are killed every year in this way. After all, however, it is perhaps 
the Indian himself who commits the mischief most wantonly."* 
General W. F. Raynolds, in his report of his Exploration of the Yellow- 
stone in 1859 and 18G0, thus refers to this matter:f "And here I would 
remark, that the wholesale destruction of the buffalo is a matter that 
should receive,the attention of the proper authorities. It is due to the 
fact that the skin of the female is alone valuable for robes. The skin of 
the male over three years old is never used fortbat purpose, the hair on 
the hind quarters being not longer than that on a horse, while on the 
fore quarters it has a length of from four to six inches. The skin is also 
too thick and heavy to be used for anything but lodge coverings, while 
the flesh is coarse and unpalatable, and is never used for food when any 
other can be had. The result is that the females are always singled out 
by the hunter, and consequently the males in a herd always exceed the 
females, in the proportion of ten to one. Another, but far less impor- 
tant cause of their extinction is the immense number of wolves in the 
country, which destroy the young. The only remedy that would have 
the slightest effect in the case would be a prohibition of the trade of 
buffalo-robes, and a premium upon wolf-skins. I fear it is too late for 
even this remedy, and notwithstanding the immense herds that are yet 
to be found, I think it is more than probable that another generation 
will witness almost the entire extinction of this noble animal." 
During the fifteen years that have passed since this was written, the 
wolves have in a great measure been exterminated over much of the 
buffalo range, but something far more fatal to the buffalo than anything 
then known-the railroad-has penetrated its range, and while the 
females and the young are still slaughtered with the same recklessness 
as before, the old bulls have of late been hunted with almost equal 
eagerness. 
Statistics relating to the Destruction of the Buffalo, based principally on 
the Trade in Robes.-Fremont, in 1845, published some statistics fur- 
nished him by Mr. Sanford, a partner of the American Fur Company, 
respecting the number of robes annually obtained from the Indians by 
the different fur companies. The average return for the preceding eight 
or ten years is given as ninety thousand annually. " In the Northwest," 
says Mr. Sanford, " the Hudson's Bay Company purchase from the In- 
dians but a very small number-their market being Canada, to which 
the cost of transportation nearly equals the produce of the furs; and it 
is only within a very recent period that they have received buffalo-robes 
in trade; and out of the great number of buffalo annually killed through- 
out the extensive regions inhabited by the Camanches and other kindred 
tribes [Texas, the Indian Territory, and Kansas] no robes whatever are 
furnished for trade. During only four months of the year (from No- 
vember until March) the skins are good for dressing; those obtained in 
the remaining eight months being valueless to traders; and the hides 
of bulls are never taken off or dressed as robes at any season. Proba- 
bly not more than one-third of the skins are taken from the animals 
killed, even when they are in good season, the labor of preparing and 
* Pat. Off. Rep., Agricult., 1851-52, Part II, p. 125. 
t Exploration of the Yellowstone, p. 11, published in 1868. 
36 g s 562 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
dressing the robes being very great; and it is seldom that a lodge trades 
more than twenty skins in a year. It is during the summer months, and 
in the early part of autumn, that the greatest number of buffalo are 
killed, and yet at this time a skin is never taken for the purpose of 
trade."* 
Besides the number of robes traded by the Indians, as many or a greater 
number were at this time annually used by the Indians themselves. 
This would make, at a moderate estimate, the annual number of about 
two hundred thousand robes, which represent, according to the compe- 
tent authority above cited, only one-third of the buffaloes killed during 
about one-third of the year, and during that part of the year, too, when 
the smallest number are destroyed. Taking the above data as a basis 
for an estimate, the whole number killed annually by the Indians must 
have equalled eighteen hundred thousand (1,800,000). Allowing a slight 
addition for the relatively greater number killed during the warmer 
parts of the year, we have, in round numbers, the startling total of 
about two millions as the average annual number destroyed by only 
those tribes of Indians who were accustomed to collect robes for the 
market. These embraced only a small portion of the tribes living within 
or on the borders of the great buffalo range; so that probably two mil- 
lions a year is much less than half the number killed at this time by the 
Indians alone. Besides this, travellers and white hunters killed an- 
nually hundreds of thousands more. When we consider that this enor- 
mous destruction continued for several decades, we need no longer be 
surprised at the rapid numerical decrease of the buffalo that has marked 
the last forty or fifty years of his history. 
In 1852 Professor Baird wrote: "Mr. Picotte, an experienced partner 
of the American Fur Company, estimated the number of buffalo-robes 
sent to Saint Louis in 1850 at one hundred thousand. Supposing each 
of the sixty thousand Indians on the Missouri to use ten robes for his 
wearing apparel every year, beside those for new lodges and other pur- 
poses, by the calculation of Mr. Picotte, we shall have an aggregate of 
four hundred thousand [sic] robes [seven hundred thousand?]. We may 
suppose one hundred thousand as the,number killed wantonly or de- 
stroyed by fire or other casualties, and we will have the grand total of 
half a million [eight hundred thousand ?] of buffalo destroyed every 
year. This, too, does not include the numbers slaughtered on Red 
River and other gathering points." t In this estimate the important 
fact is overlooked that the robes are all taken during three months of 
the year, at a season, too, when the smallest number are killed, and that 
only about one-third of those killed during these three months are util- 
ized for robes. If this number should be multiplied by nine, as it evi- 
dently must be from the above-quoted statements of Mr. Sanford, and 
which from general considerations also seems probable, we should have 
the immense total of from five to seven millions as the number killed 
yearly by the Indians who furnished the one hundred thousand robes 
for the Saint Louis market! Ten robes, however, seems to be a large 
number to be used annually by each person. If we reduce the number 
to three, we shall still have an annual aggregate of nearly three and a 
half millions as the number destroyed by the Upper Missouri tribes 
alone. South of this region there were at this time upward of forty 
thousand Indians belonging to other tribes living within the range of 
the buffalo, beside the numerous populous tribes inhabiting the buffalo 
range north of the United States. The number that must have been 
* Fremont's First and Second Expeditions, p. 145. 
t Pat. Off. Rep., Agricult., 1851-52, Part II, p. 125. Allen.] STATISTICS RELATING TO DESTRUCTION OF BUFFALO. 
563 
killed each year by all these tribes together is a startling sum to con- 
template. 
In 1854 the Hon. H. H. Sibley, in his paper on the buffalo contained 
in Schoolcraft's " History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes 
of the United States," gives a later estimate of their annual destruction 
in the Missouri region. He says: "From data which, although not 
mathematically correct, are sufficiently so to enable us to arrive at con- 
clusions approximating the truth, it has been estimated that for each 
buffalo-robe transported from the Indian country, at least five animals* 
are destroyed. If it be borne in mind that very few robes are manufac- 
tured of the hides of buffalo except such as, in hunters' parlance, are 
killed when they are in season, that is during the mouths of November, 
December, and January, and that even of these a large proportion are 
not used for that purpose, and also that the skins of the cows are prin- 
cipally converted into robes, those of the males being too thick and 
heavy to be easily reduced by the ordinary process of scraping, together 
with the fact that many thousands are annually destroyed through sheer 
wantonness, by civilized as well as savage men, it will be found that the 
foregoing estimate is a moderate one. From the Missouri region the 
number of robes received varies from forty thousand to one hundred 
thousand, so that from a quarter to half a million of buffaloes are de- 
stroyed iu the period of each twelvemonth."f 
From the preceding remarks it is evident that Mr. Sibley's estimate 
is far below the truth. Since as many robes are doubtless used by the 
Indians themselves as they sell, this number must include not more 
than half of the robes taken during only three or four months of the 
year. Hence instead of one-fourth to half a million representing the 
number annually killed at this date in the Missouri region, probably a 
million to a million and a half would be a much nearer estimate. 
In June, 1873,1 met at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, Mr. 
F. F. Gerard, the well-known Cree interpreter, whose twenty-five years' 
experience in the Upper Missouri country, nearly every part of which 
he had visited, together with his having been formerly an agent of the 
American Fur Company, had given him much valuable information re- 
specting not only the fur trade but the former range and the recent 
great decrease in numbers of many of the larger mammals of that region. 
From him I learned that in 1857 the trade in buffalo-robes at the prin- 
cipal posts on the Upper Missouri was about as follows : At Fort Ben- 
ton, the number received amounted to 3,600 bales, or 36,000 robes ; at 
Fort Union, 2,700 to 3,000 bales, or about 30,000 robes. At Forts 
Clarke and Berthoud, 500 bales at each post, or about 10,000 robes; at 
Fort Pierre, 1,900 bales, or 19,000 robes; giving a total for one year of 
about 75,000 robes, which he informed me was about the annual average 
at that period. Allowing that the Indians retained only as many more 
for their own use, and estimating as before that one robe represents the 
destruction of three buffaloes, gives four hundred and fifty thousand as 
the number killed by a portion only of the Upper Missouri Indians in 
one-third of a year, or over a million and a third annually. To this 
number, as already noticed, must be added the number killed by the 
Indians to the northward and southward of this region, as well as the 
great numbers destroyed by the lied River half-breeds and by white 
men. 
Respecting the number killed by the Red River hunters, I have met 
* Evidently quite too low an estimate. 
t Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United 
States, Vol. IV, p. 94. 564 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
with no satisfactory statistics, but that it must have been immense is 
evident from the number of persons engaged in their hunting ex- 
peditions. Mr. Ross, in his history of the Red River Settlement, states 
that the number of carts assembled for the first trip in 1820 was five 
hundred and forty. Subsequently the number regularly increased to 
one thousand two hundred and ten in 1840. In his description of the 
hunt of this year, he states that the number of hunters engaged was 
six hundred and twenty for two months, who were accompanied by six 
hundred and fifty women, and three hundred and sixty boys and girls, 
the party numbering altogether sixteen hundred and thirty souls. The 
party was armed with seven hundred and forty guns, and had with 
them eleven hundred and fifty-eight horses and five hundred and eighty- 
six draught oxen, with other equipments in proportion. During the 
first day of the hunt no less than thirteen hundred and seventy-five 
buffalo tongues were brought into camp, and during the first two races 
not less than twenty-five hundred animals were killed. Of these he es- 
timates that less than one-third were properly utilized, as he considers 
that seven hundred and fifty animals, making all due allowance for 
waste, would have been ample for the amount of pemmican and dried 
meat saved from them. The rest, he says, was wasted; "and this," he 
adds, "is only a fair example of the manner in which the plain busi- 
ness is carried on under the present system. Scarcely one-third in 
number of the animals killed are turned to account."* 
Dr. Hayden, in 1861, says that as near as he could determine, about 
one hundred thousand robes were then annually made by the Indians 
of the Upper Missouri country, t Dr. Hayden also states that at this 
period the bulls outnumbered the cows ten to one ; which personal ex- 
perience led me to think was a fair estimate of the proportion of the 
sexes in 1871 on the plains of Kansas. 
, Through the kindness of E. T. Bowen, Esq., General Superintendent 
of the Kansas Pacific Railway, I nave obtained a statement of the "es- 
timated shipments of buffalo products over the Kansas Pacific Railway 
during the year 1871." This estimate, carefully prepared by the Auditor 
of the Company, is as follows: Dry hides, three hundred and forty-one 
thousand one hundred and fifty-one (341,151) pounds, estimated at 
twenty-five pounds per hide, and thus representing thirteen thousand 
six hundred and forty-six (13,646) buffaloes; eleven hundred and sixty- 
one thousand four hundred and nineteen (1,161,419) pounds of meat, 
estimated at two hundred pounds per saddle, and thus representing five 
thousand eight hundred and seven (5,807) buffaloes. No return is here 
made of, the large amount of salted and cured meat also sent to Eastern 
The somewhat less than six thousand " saddles " represented 
by the above statement must, it appears to me, be far below the actual 
number, as one hunter informed me that he had himself alone killed 
over three thousand buffaloes a year for several years, and I met other 
persons who claimed to have each killed an equal number. These sta- 
tistics would alone indicate a slaughter of at least twenty thousand 
buffaloes along the line of the Kansas Pacific Railway during the year 
1871, to which must be added other thousands killed by travellers and 
amateur hunters, and by the officers and soldiers stationed at the differ- 
ent military posts in the same region. 
I have been unable to obtain statistics of the shipment of buffalo 
products over this road since 1871, as such information, writes the 
* Ross (Alexander), The Red River Settlement; its Rise, Progress, and Present State,, 
pp. 242-265. 
tTrans. Am. Phil. Soc., New Series, Vol. XII, p. 151. ALLEN.] STATISTICS RELATING TO DESTRUCTION OF BUFFALO. 
565 
present Superintendent of the road, is not in available shape, and to 
obtain it would involve considerable expense. There has, however, 
been a great falling off in the annual amounts shipped since that date, 
in consequence of the great decrease of the buffalo throughout the 
region which this road passes. 
Respecting the quantity of the products of the buffalo shipped over 
the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad during the years 1872, 
1873, and 1874,1 have been favored with the following statement by the 
General Superintendent, Mr. C. F. Morse: 
Statement of Buffalo Products shipped over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa 
Fe Railroad during a period of three years, from 1872 to 1875. 
Hides, in 1872 
- 165,721 
" in 1873 
251,443 
" in 1874 
42,289 
Rohes, in 1872 
No account. 
" in 1873 
" in 1874 
18, 499 
Meat, in 1872 
No account. 
" in 1873 
1,617,600 lbs. 
" in 1874 
632,800 " 
Bones, in 1872 
1,135, 300 lbs. 
" in 1873 
2,743,100 " 
" in 1874 
6,914,900 " 
From the above statement it appears that the number of hides shipped 
over this road during a period of three years was nearly half a million, 
while the robes, of which the number shipped in a single year only is 
given, would make the number exceed this sum. In addition to this 
number we have to add, for the number of buffaloes utilized or sold as 
meat, only the small number of from three to eight thousand a year 
more! 
In answer to inquiries respecting the shipment of buffalo products 
over the Union Pacific Eailroad, I have been kindly informed by Mr. 
E. P. Vining, General Freight Agent, that no large amount of buffalo 
products has been received by this road, and that consequently no sta- 
tistics of the business have been kept, as is the case with all the impor- 
tant branches of their business. These statistics respecting the ship- 
ments over the railroads relate only to the Kansas range of the buffalo, 
and hence refer merely to a limited district, and to the slaughter by 
white hunters alone. 
In respect to the recent destruction of the buffalo north of the United 
States, Mr. J. W. Taylor, United States Consul at Winnipeg, B. N. A., 
whose valuable communication onthebuffalo has been previously quoted, 
informs me that about eighteen thousand robes were sent to the Min- 
nesota market from the Saskatchewan district alone during the year 
ending September 30, 1872, while as many more were either consumed 
in the country or sent to Europe by the way of York Factory, or about 
forty thousand in all. By far the larger part of the buffaloes killed in 
the Saskatchewan district, however, are converted into pemmican and 
dried meat, and being killed in summer, do not enter at all into the 
above statement made by Mr. Taylor. From these data it is evident 
that the destruction of the buffalo in the Saskatchewan region in 1872 
must have amounted to considerably more than a million, and these 
mainly cows. 566 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
In forming a general estimate of the annual destruction of the buffalo 
in recent years, it is necessary to add to the large sums already given the 
large number killed by the different Indian tribes still residing in or near 
the ranges of the two herds, as well as the thousands killed for frontier 
consumption, and the many thousands more of which no use is made. 
Even approximate data for the last-named elements of the problem of 
course do not exist, but the total killed between 1870 and 1875 cannot 
have been less than about two and a half millions annually. The effect 
of this destruction upon the already terribly thinned herds has been most 
marked, and if continued at a proportional rate will unquestionably in a 
few years exterminate the race. 
2.-PRODUCTS OF THE BUFFALO. 
The flesh of the buffalo is, of course, its most important product, 
either to the white man or the Indian. It has not only always formed 
a large part of the food of the Indian tribes living within its range, but 
has also proved hardly less important to the whites during their first 
exploration of the country it inhabited. The various military and other 
surveys of the great central plateau of the continent, as well as the 
numerous private expeditions to the same region, could have been ac- 
complished only at greatly increased expense and privation had not the 
buffalo supplied to the persons engaged in these enterprises a never- 
failing and ready means of subsistence. 
The buffaloes, in common with deer and elks, have also often been 
invaluable to the pioneer settler, insuring him food during the first few 
years at least of his frontier life. As already noticed, Boone and his 
party subsisted almost wholly during their first winter in Kentucky on 
the flesh of this animal, and throughout the prairie portions of the 
country, from Illinois westward to the Rocky Mountains, the buffalo 
has subserved a most important purpose in the westward progress of 
civilization. The vast influx of settlers that follows the opening of new 
railroads across the Plains, such as that which still sets into the valley 
of the Arkansas along the line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe 
Railroad, thus find a sure subsistence until they can open up and im- 
prove their farms ; and, as one writer has remarked, " by the time the 
last buffalo has disappeared from Kansas, the frontier will be subdued 
to civilization and be self-supporting." 
From lack of speedy and cheap means of transportation the consump- 
tion of buffalo meat was, until recently, necessarily limited to the peo- 
ple living near or within its actual range, and to parties traversing the 
country it inhabited. Upon the opening of the Kansas railways, how- 
ever, mauy car-loads, as already shown by the above-given statistics, 
were shipped during winter to the Eastern cities. While Chicago, St. 
Louis, Cincinnati, and the other larger cities of the Mississippi Valley 
formed the principal markets for its sale, it was also sent in large quan- 
tities to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the other 
chief cities of the East.* When arriving in good condition, as was 
*As already noticed, upward of one million pounds were shipped, as saddles, over 
the Kansas Pacific Railway during the winter of 1871-72, besides hundreds of barrels 
of tongues and cured ''hams" during the same period. Since that time the shipments 
over this road have greatly diminished, but the reduction was for a year or two more 
than balanced by the additional shipments over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F6 
road, which in 1873 were over one and a half million (1,617,600) pounds. In 1874, 
however, the shipment was less than half this amount, there having been already a 
marked decline in the amount of buffalo products transported oyer this road also. ALLEN.] 
PRODUCTS OF THE BUFFALO. 
567 
usually the case, it rivals beef and venison in cheapness if not in qual- 
ity, besides having the special feature of novelty. 
The meat of the buffalo is often spoken of as being dry and tough, 
and far inferior in quality to beef. This is in a measure true, the 
flesh of middle-aged and elderly bulls being of this character, that 
of old bulls being eaten only when none other can be obtained. The 
flesh of a young fat cow, or of a yearling or two-year-old bull, however, 
is not surpassed by the finest beef, from which it cannot usually be dis- 
tinguished. During some two months spent on the Kansas plains in 
1871-72, I ate it daily, and would never ask for, as indeed I have never 
tasted, finer beef than the buffalo meat, which was almost exclusively 
used. Often at the hotel in Hays City, as well as at other public tables 
in the buffalo country, have 1 heard the beef praised by Eastern trav- 
ellers, who frequently expressed their surprise at the excellent quality 
of this article set before them. Often, too, in the same connection, our 
Eastern traveller would ask about buffalo meat, whether it was fit to eat, 
whether it was much used for food, and whether he would be likely to 
get a chance to taste it in his journey across the plains. When told 
that he had just partaken of it, that it was buffalo beef which he had 
been praising, and that it was the staple meat of the table throughout 
the buffalo country, at the hotels and restaurants as well as in the 
hunter's camp, his surprise amounted almost to incredulity, which only 
the strongest assurances would remove. The age and condition of the 
animal, as already stated, have much to do with the quality of the meat, 
and a more miserable semblance of food could hardly be set before one 
than a steak cut from one of the old " lords of the prairie." 
The tongue of even an old bull is always regarded as a delicate mor- 
sel, and is often saved when no other part of the animal is touched. 
The hump is generally considered to be next in delicacy and tenderness. 
A few hunters killed buffaloes during the autumn months for the pur- 
pose of curing the meat. The best pieces only, from young and tender 
animals, were selected, and, when properly cured, were fully equal to 
the best dried and smoked beef found in the Eastern markets. A sin- 
gle hunter at Hays City shipped annually for some years several hun- 
dred barrels thus prepared, which the consumers probably bought for 
ordinary beef.* 
Further northward, on the plains of the Saskatchewan, Assinniboine, 
lied Fiver, and Upper Missouri, large quantities of the meat were for- 
merly made into pemmican. In this form it proves invaluable to the 
Northern voyageurs and trappers, of whose commissariat it formed the 
chief resource. Hind states that the Hudson's Bay Company formerly 
obtained from the Plain Crees, the Assinniboines, and the Ojibways, 
pemmican and dried meat to supply the brigades of boats in their ex- 
peditions to York Factory, on Hudson's Bay, and throughout the inte- 
rior.* 
Pemmican, though made sometimes from the meat of other animals, 
as deer, elk, moose, mountain-sheep, and reindeer, is prepared princi- 
pally from the buffalo. It is put up in bags of from ninety to one hun- 
dred and ten pounds' weight (according to different authorities), and 
* Dr. Richardson's testimony respecting the quality of bison meat is as follows : " The 
flesh of the bison, in good condition, is very juicy and well flavored, much resembling 
that of well-fed beef. The tongue is deemed a delicacy, and may be cured so as to 
surpass in flavor the tongue of an English cow. The hump of flesh covering the long 
spinous processes of the first dorsal vertebrae is much esteemed. It ... . has a fine 
grain, and when salted and cut transversely, it is almost as rich and tender as the 
tongue."-Fauna Boreali-Americana, Vol. I, p. 282. 
t Narrative of the Canadian Exploring Expedition, Vol. I, p. 311. 568 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
consists of nearly equal parts, by weight, of pounded dried meat and 
tallow. The method of its preparation has been repeatedly described 
by different Northern travellers, * whose accounts differ somewhat in 
respect to the details, as they do in respect to its flavor and desirability 
as an article of food. The Earl of Southesk t speaks of it as scarcely 
endurable, and Captain Butler says that, when prepared in the best 
form, it "can be eaten, provided the appetite be sharp and there is 
nothing else to be had,-this last consideration is, however, of impor- 
tance." J It proves, however, to be exceedingly nutritious, and is the 
favorite food of the Indians and the half-breed voyageurs, and was 
formerly so extensively used in the Red River Settlement that the sup- 
ply was never adequate to the demand. § According to Nir. Sibley's 
account, as furnished him by the Rev. Mr. Belcourt,|| a Catholic priest 
residing among the Red River half-breeds, the dried meat and the pem- 
mican are prepared by these people as follows : 
" The meat, when taken to the camp, is cut by the women into long 
strips, about a quarter of an inch thick, which are hung upon the lat- 
tice-work prepared for that purpose, to dry. This lattice-work is formed 
by small pieces of wood placed horizontally, transversely, and equidis- 
tant from each other, not unlike an immense gridiron, and is supported 
by wooden uprights (trepieds). In a few days the meat is thoroughly des- 
iccated, when it is bent into proper lengths, and tied in bundles of sixty 
or seventy pounds' weight. This is called dried meat (viande seche). 
Other portions, which are destined to be made into pimikehigan, or pem- 
ican, are exposed to an ardent heat, and thus become brittle and easily 
reducible to small particles by the use of a flail; the buffalo-hide answer- 
ing the purpose of a threshing-floor. The fat, or tallow, being cut up 
and melted in large kettles of sheet-iron, is poured upon this pounded 
meat, and the whole mass is worked together with shovels until it is 
well amalgamated, when it is pressed, still warm, into bags made of 
buffalo-skin, which are strongly sewed up, and the mixture gradually 
cools and becomes almost as hard as a rock. If the fat used in the pro- 
cess is taken from the parts containing the udder, the meat is called fine 
pemican. In some cases dried fruits, such as the prairie-pear and cherry, 
are intermixed, which make what is called seedpemican. The lovers of 
good eating judge the first described to be very palatable, the second 
better, and the third excellent. A taurean of pemican weighs from one 
hundred to one hundred and ten pounds. Some idea may be formed of 
the immense destruction of buffalo by these people when it is stated 
that a whole cow yields one-half a bag of pemican, and three-fourths 
of a bundle of dried meat; so that the most economical calculate that 
from eight to ten cows are required for the load of a single vehicle."5J 
The same account says that " the men break the bones, which are 
boiled in water to extract the marrow to be used for frying and for 
other culinary purposes. The oil is then poured into the bladder of The 
animal, which contains when filled about twelve pounds, being the yield 
"See Ross, Red River Settlement, pp. 262-264; Sibley, in Schoolcraft's History, 
Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, Part IV, p. 107 ; Hind, Canadian Ex- 
ploring Expedition, Vol. I, p. 312 , Bntler, The Great Lone Land, p. 153, &c. 
t Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains, p. 302. 
t The Great Lone Land, p. 134. 
$ Ross, Red River Settlement, p. 165. 
|| Mr. Belcourt's account appears to have been previously communicated to Major 
S. Woods, by whom it was published in the original French as early as 1849, in his 
report of his Expedition to the Pembina Settlements. See Congress. Rep., 31st Con- 
gress, 1st Session, House Ex. Doc , Vol. VIII, No. 54, pp. 44-52. 
IT Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, Part IV, 
p. 107. ALLEN.] 
PRODUCTS OF THE BUFFALO. 
569 
of the marrow-bones of two buffaloes."* Ross states that ua bull in 
good condition will yield forty-five pounds of clean rendered tallow," 
and that cows when in good order yield on an average about thirty-five 
pounds.! 
Prior to the time of railroad communication with the Plains, however, 
the most important commercial product of the buffalo was its robes. 
For many years, as evident from the statistics already given, not less 
than one hundred thousand robes were annually purchased of the 
Indians, a considerable portion of which found their way to European 
markets. In recent years there has been a marked decline in the pro- 
duction of robes, owing in part to the rapid extirpation of the buffalo, 
but more especially to the great depopulation, through wars and con- 
tagious diseases, of the Indian tribes of the Plains, by whom most of the 
robes have hitherto been prepared. *A few are still gathered in the 
United States by the Indian traders, and of late white hunters have 
turned their attention to their preservation. Thus in the above-given 
returns of the shipment of buffalo products over the Atchison, Topeka, 
and Santa Fe Railroad occurs the item of eighteen thousand four hun- 
dred and eighty-nine robes in the statement for the year 1874. 
To the Indians of the Plains the buffalo has not only ever been an 
unfailing source of food,-whose flesh, Catlin states,! they prefer to that 
of the antelope, deer, or elk,-but has also furnished them, to a great 
extent, with shelter and clothing; the heavier, coarser skins of the bulls 
being used as lodge-coverings, and those of the cows for beds and cloth- 
ing. 
According to the Jesuit missionaries, the women of the Illinois In- 
dians used to employ the hair of the buffalo in making bands, belts, and 
sacks; and these and other tribes used also to make shields of the hides, 
and spoons, ladles, etc., from the horns and bones. Gomara, in speak- 
ing of the Indians of the Plains, says, " and of their hides they make 
many things, as houses, shooes, apparell, and ropes: of their bones they 
make bodkins: of their sinewes and haire, thread: of their dung, fire: 
and of their calves-skinnes, budgets, wherein they drawe and 'keepe 
water. To bee short, they make so many things of them as they have 
need of, or as many as suffice them in the use of this life." § 
During the last few years many skins of buffaloes have been taken by 
the white hunters for the purpose of preparing leather from them. At 
the lowest estimate more than a million buffaloes have been sacrificed 
for this purpose in Kansas alone during the last five years. I say sacri- 
ficed in this connection advisedly, because the amount realized by the 
hunters from the sale of these hides scarcely brings them a return equal 
to the wages of an ordinary laborer in other pursuits. The " buffalo-skin- 
ners," as they are sometimes derisively termed, practice their ignoble call- 
ing mainly during the warmer months, when the weather will not permit 
of the shipment of meat to the Eastern markets, and seem to follow the 
business more from a love of the wild, semi-barbarous, out door life of 
the plains-hunter than for any anticipated profit. 
Generally in hunting buffaloes for their hides only the old bulls are 
killed, which are of little account in a pecuniary point of view for any 
other purpose, but some hunters are so reckless of even their own inter- 
est as to take any animal that comes in their way. Aside from the 
diminution in the number of buffaloes resulting from this reckless and 
* Ibid., p 107. 
t Red River Settlement, p. 262. 
t North American Indians, Vol. I, p. 24. 
$ Translation in Hakluyt's Voyages, Vol. Ill, p. 456. 570 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
almost unremunerative slaughter, the herds are harassed and kept wan- 
dering from place to place the whole year, which of course greatly inter- 
feres with their multiplication. It should be said, however, that this 
destruction of the buffalo in summer for its hide has not generally met 
with the approval of the better class of hunters, among whom there has 
been at times a strong feeling against it, it being chiefly carried on by 
those who were too unthrifty to seek employment in other pursuits dur- 
ing the time when buffalo-hunting for the Eastern market was not in 
season. Sometimes the more intelligent and influential portion of the 
hunters would warn the transgressors to desist from their unseasonable 
slaughter or immediately leave the country, on pain of summary treat- 
ment,-an admonition which was generally so effective as not to require 
a repetition. 
The hide of the buffalo makes but an inferior, porous kind of leather, 
useful, however, for certain purposes, such as covers for carriage-tops, 
belt-leather, etc. The average net price realized by the hunter is gen- 
erally less than a dollar per hide, usually from fifty to seventy-five cents, 
while it occasionally happens that in shipping a car-load of hides to the 
Eastern market the hunter is left in debt to the broker, whose deduction 
for freight and charges for commission exceed the price allowed for the 
skins. 
The coarse wool of the buffalo early attracted attention as an article 
of commercial value. The early Jesuit explorers stated that tbe Indians 
were accustomed to weave it into ornamental or useful fabrics, and 
usually enumerated it as one of the products of tbe buffalo that would 
render tbe animal valuable under domestication. Charlevoix says that 
the wives of the Illinois Indians were accustomed to spin the buffalo- 
wool and make it as fine as that of English sheep.* Marquette says, 
referring to the same tribes, "they presented us with belts, garters, and 
other articles made of tbe hair of bears and buffaloes"; and adds that 
"their chiefs are distinguished from tbe soldiers by red scarfs made of 
the hair of buffaloes, curiously wrought." t Father Marest also enume- 
rates among the employments of the Illinois Indians the making of 
"bands, belts, and sacks" from the hair of the buffalo.| Brackenridge, 
in a work published in 1814, says: "Tbe wool of tbe buffaloe has a 
peculiar fineness, even surpassing that of the merino. I have seen 
gloves made of it, little inferior to silk. But for tbe difficulty of sep- 
arating the hair, it might become a very important article of commerce. 
Should any means be discovered of effecting this, or should it be found 
that at certain seasons there is less of this mixture, the buffalo wool 
must become of prime importance in manufactures." This author adds 
in a footnote as follows: "It is curious to observe, that in the instruction 
to Iberville by the King of France, two things were considered of the 
first importance, the pearl fishery and the Intfi'aloe icool. Charlevoix 
observes, that he is not surprised that tbe first should not have been 
attended to, but he thinks it strange that the second should be neglected 
even to his time."§ 
The early explorers of the country east of the Mississippi evidently 
very generally looked upon the buffalo as an animal that would prove 
* Charlevoix says, in describing the Illinois Indians: "Their Wives are sufficiently 
dexterous: They spin the Buffalo's Wool, and make it as fine as that of English Sheep. 
Sometimes one would even take it for Silk. They make Stutts of it, which they dye 
black, yellow, and a dark-red. They make Gov» ns of it, which they sew with the Thread 
made of the Sinews of Roe-Bucks."-Letters, etc., English ed., p. 293. 
tHist. Coll. Louisiana, Vol. II, p. 288. 
t Kip's Early Jesuit Missions, p. 199. 
§ Views oi'Louisiana, p. 57. ALLEN.] 
PRODUCTS OF THE BUFFALO. 
571 
of very great economic value. M. de la Galissonniere, in a "Memoir on 
the French Colonies in North America," written in 1750, speaks especi- 
ally of the prospective value of the buffalo to the French settlers of the 
Illinois country. After describing the vast prairies " waiting only for 
the plough," he refers to their being "covered withan innumerable mul- 
titude of buffaloes,-a species," he says, " which will probably not run 
out for many centuries hence, both because the country is not sufficiently 
peopled to make their consumption perceptible, and because, the hides 
not being adapted to the same uses as those of the European race, it 
will never happen that the animals will be killed solely for the sake of 
their skins, as is the practice among the Spaniards of the River de la 
Plata. 
"If the Illinois buffaloes do not supply the tanneries with much," M. 
Galissonniere continues, "eventually, advantages at least equivalent 
may reasonably be expected, on which we cannot prevent ourselves 
dwelling for a moment. 
" l8t- These animals are covered with a species of wool, sufficiently fine 
to be employed in various manufactures, as experience has demonstrated. 
"2nd- It can scarcely be doubted that, by catching them young and 
gelding them, they would be adapted to ploughing; perhaps, even, they 
would possess the same advantage that horses have over domestic oxen, 
that is, superior swiftness; they appear to be as strong, but perhaps are 
indebted for this to wild breeding; in other respects, they do not seem 
difficult to tame ; a 4 or 5 year old Bull and Cow have been seen that 
were extremely gentle. 
"3d. Were the Illinois country sufficiently well settled to admit of 
the people inclosing a great number of these animals in parks, some of 
them might be salted, a business susceptible of being extended very con- 
siderably, without Illinois possessing a large population for that pur- 
pose. This trade would perhaps enable us to dispense with Irish beef 
for Martinico, and even to compete with the English, and at a lower 
rate, for the supply of the Spanish Colonies." * 
It appears that in 1821 a joint-stock company was formed in the Brit- 
ish Red River Colony, under the high-sounding title of the " Buffalo 
Wool Company," whose express objects were " to provide a substitute 
for w'ool, which substitute was to be the wool of the wild buffalo, which 
was to be collected in the Plains, and manufactured both for the use of 
the colonists and for export, and to establish a tannery for manufactur- 
ing the buffalo-hides for domestic purposes." A capital of two thou- 
sand pounds sterling was raised, and orders sent to England for ma- 
chinery, implements, dyes, and skilled workmen. Two immigrations of 
operatives arrived, including " curriers, skinners, sorters, wool-dressers, 
teasers, and bark manufacturers, of all grades, ages, and sexes." For a 
time money was plenty, wages high, and the prospects golden. But 
events proved the scheme to be grounded on miscalculation, which, with 
the extravagant expenditure indulged in by the company, soon brought 
grief, not only to all the participants, but in a measure affected the for- 
tunes of the whole colony. It was found that " the wool and the hides 
were not to be got, as stated, for the picking up; the hides soon costing 
the company 6s. each, and the wool Is. 6d. per pound." But, according 
to Ross (from whom these statements are compiled), " the bottle and the 
glass" were too freely circulated; spirits were imported by the hogs- 
head, and scenes of disorder and intemperance followed ; both officials 
* Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York ; procured 
in Holland, England, and France, by John Romeyn Brodhead, Esq., etc., Vol. X, pp. 
230, 231. 572 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
and operatives were " wallowing in intemperance"; the hides were al- 
lowed to rot, the wool to spoil, and the tannery proved a complete fail- 
ure. The company, besides expending their capital, found themselves 
irretrievably in debt to their bankers, and bankruptcy followed. " A 
few samples of cloth," continues Mr. Ross, " had, indeed, been made and 
sent home ; but that which cost two pounds ten shillings per yard in 
Red River, would only fetch four shillings and sixpence in England ! " 
But, though the enterprise itself disastrously failed, mainly through mis- 
management and gross indiscretion, its indirect results were neverthe- 
less beneficial to the colony.* 
Dr. Richardson also states that the wool of the buffalo " has been man- 
ufactured in England into a remarkably fine and beautiful cloth, and in 
the colony of Osnaboyna, on the Red River, a warm and durable coarse 
cloth is formed of it." t 
Although the soft woolly hair of the buffalo is evidently well adapted 
for the manufacture of cloth, I have heard of no other attempts toward 
its utilization. Of late, however, a traffic has sprang up along the line 
of the Kansas railroads in the bones, which are gathered for the pur- 
pose of shipment east for the manufacture of fertilizing material. Mr. 
C. F. Morse, the General Superintendent of the Atchison, Topeka, and 
Santa Fe Railroad, writes, under date of June 2, 1875, that the " bone 
business is still quite heavy, and will probably last for one or two years 
longer." From his accompanying statements of buffalo products shipped 
over that road during the last three years, it appears that the shipment 
of bones in 1872 amounted to eleven hundred and thirty-five thousand 
three hundred pounds; for 1873, twenty-seven hundred and forty-three 
thousand one hundred and ten pounds; for 1874, sixty-nine hundred 
and fourteen thousand nine hundred pounds, or treble the amount of 
the previous year, and six times that of 1872. 
Among the products of the buffalo, mention of " buffalo chips," or 
bois de vaclte, as the French royageurs term it, should not be omitted. 
This material, as most persons doubtless well know, is simply the dried 
excrement of the buffalo, which the traveller on the treeless plains finds 
a very serviceable substitute for wood. As Dr. Elliott Coues has re- 
cently remarked, in an interesting and very humorously written article 
on this subject, "As an agent in the progress of civilization, the spirit 
of which is expressed in the remark that westward the course of empire 
takes its way, the buffalo chip rises to the plane of the steam-engine and 
the electric telegraph, and acquires all the dignity which is supposed to 
enshroud questions of national importance or matters of political econ- 
omy. I am not sure, indeed, that it is not entitled to still higher rank, 
for it is certain, at any rate, that we move in some parts of the West 
without either steam or electricity (mules replacing both), where it 
would be as impossible to live without buffalo chips as to exist without 
flour, coffee, and tobacco." J In the narrative of military reconnaissances 
and other Government explorations of the Plains, as wrell as of those 
of private explorers and travellers, the first meeting with buffalo-chips 
is chronicled as something intimately affecting the welfare of the party, 
as it not only generally gives promise of soon meeting with herds of the 
animals themselves, but insures fuel for the camp-fire and for culinary 
purposes in regions where other sources of fuel are either precarious or 
entirely wanting. In the history of travel across the great interior plains, 
from those of Texas to those of the Saskatchewan, no other element, 
* Ross (Alexander), Red River Settlement, pp. 69-72. 
t Fauna Boreali-Americana, Vol. I, p. 282. 
} " Chips from the Buffalo's Workshop."-Forest and Stream, (extra sheet,) April 1,1875. ALLEN.] 
THE CHASE OF THE BUFFALO. 
573 
not even water, figures more prominently. Its absence in the treeless 
districts necessitates the transportation of wood as an indispensable 
part of the camp stores, while its presence not only renders this need- 
less, but insures all those ordinary comforts of camp-life that the con- 
veniences of a camp-fire always bring. Hence its importance as a civil- 
izing agent cannot well be overrated. The misery experienced when, 
during rainy seasons, it is temporarily too wet to burn,-the deprivation 
of the "cup that cheers but not inebriates," and of all means of cook- 
ing,-gives one a most vividly realizing sense of what his condition might 
be, for days and weeks, were it not for this invaluable resource. 
How long the chip will endure the vicissitudes of the weather under 
the dry atmosphere of the Plains it is impossible to say, but its decom- 
position is slow, as it will remain in a serviceable condition for years. 
After an exposure of six mouths it burns quite readily, but is not at its 
best as an article of fuel till it has had the suns and frosts of a year. It 
burns in much the same manner as peat, and though making but little 
flame yields a very intense heat. Strips of buffalo fat thrown on at 
intervals during the evening add a bright blaze, furnishing the explorer 
with ample light by which to write up his notes of the day's work, and 
enlivening the camp with all the cheer afforded by the pinon and pitch- 
pine camp-fires of the mountains or other wooded districts. Especially 
grateful does this " buffalo-chip" lire thus become in the long cold even- 
ings of the hunter's winter camp on the Plains. 
Another use to which buffalo chips are sometimes put is that of mark- 
ing trails, and even surveyor's lines and points, it temporarily Serving 
the office of stones and stakes in places where timber and stones are 
not to be obtained, as is the case over so large a part of the Great 
Plains. 
3.-THE CHASE 
An account of the means and methods by which the buffalo has be 
come so nearly exterminated forms an interesting chapter in its history, 
since they have varied at different times and at different localities, in 
accordance with the customs of the different Indian tribes, and with the 
wants and implements of the white man. 
When the Jesuit missionaries first visited the Illinois prairies, it seems 
to have been a general custom with the Indians of the Mississippi Val- 
ley to hunt the buffalo by the aid of fire, accounts of which have been 
left us by Hennepin, Du Pratz, Charlevoix, and others. Hennepin says: 
" When the Savages discover a great Number of those Beasts together, 
they likewise assemble their whole Tribe to encompass the Bulls, and 
then set on fire the dry Herbs about them, except in some places, which 
they leave free; and therein lay themselves in Ambuscade. The Bulls, 
seeing the Flame round them, run away through those Passages where 
they see no Fire ; and there fall into the Hands of the Savages, who by 
these Means will kill sometimes above sixscore in a day."* 
Charlevoix's account of the Indian method of hunting the buffalo is 
as follows: " In the Southern and Western Parts of New France, on both 
Sides the Mississippi, the most famous Hunt is that of the Buffaloe, 
which is performed in this Manner: The Hunters range themselves on 
four Lines, which form a great Square, and begin by setting Fire to the 
Grass and Herbs, which are dry and very high : Then as the Fire gets 
forwards, they advance, closing their Lines: The Buffaloes, which are 
extremely afraid of Fire, keep flying from it, and at last find themselves 
* A New Discovery of a Vast Country iu America, p. 90, London, 1698. 574 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
so crouded together that they are generally every one killed. They say 
that a Party seldom returns from hunting without killing Fifteen Hun- 
dred or Two Thousand. But lest the different Companies should hinder 
each other, they all agree before they set out about the Place where 
they intend to hunt," etc.* 
Mr. J. G. Shea also alludes to the general custom among the Indians 
of the Upper Mississippi of hunting buffaloes by fire, of which the 
buffaloes have a great dread. Finding it approaching them, "they re- 
tire towards the centre of the prairie, where, being pressed together in 
great numbers, the Indians rush in with their arrows and musketry, and 
slaughter immense numbers in a few hours."! 
Mr. Catlin, in his "North American Indians," has described with con- 
siderable detail the methods of hunting the buffalo among the Sioux 
Indians, and has given a series of six plates illustrative of the chase.J 
According to this author, the chief hunting amusement of the Indians 
of the vicinity of the Teton River, small tributary of the Missouri, 
which joins the latter at old Fort Pierre, in Southern Dakota, consists 
in the chase of the buffalo. Being bold and desperate horsemen, they 
almost invariably pursue the buffalo on horseback, despatching him 
with the bow and lance with apparent ease. The horses, being well 
trained to the chase, as well as very fleet, soon bring their riders along- 
side their game. The Indian, as well as his horse, is divested of every- 
thing that might prove an encumbrance in running, the Indian even 
throwing off his shield and quiver as well as his clothing; taking in his 
left hand five or six arrows drawn from his quiver, he holds them ready 
for instant use, while he plies a heavy whip with his right. Riding near 
the rear of the herd he selects his animal, which he separates from the 
mass by dashing his horse between it and the herd, and, riding past it 
to the right, discharges his deadly arrow at the animal's heart, which 
penetrates "to the feather." Some, our author says, also pursue the 
animal with the lance. In this manner the Sioux were accustomed to 
destroy immense numbers of the buffalo, pursuing them in large hunt- 
ing-parties, and killing hundreds and even thousands in a single hunt. 
Mr. Catlin refers to one of these grand hunts that occurred just before 
his arrival at the Fur Company's post at the mouth of the Teton, in 
May, 1833. A large herd of buffaloes appearing in sight on the opposite 
side of the river, a band of five hundred or six hundred Sioux horsemen 
forded the river about midday, and, recrossing the river at sundown, 
brought with them to the post fourteen hundred fresh buffalo tongues, 
which they readily exchanged for a few gallons of whisky, "which was 
soon demolished," as our narrator states, "indulging them in a little and 
harmless carouse." Not a skin, nor a pound of meat, except the tongues, 
was saved from these slaughtered hundreds. 
In winter, when from the depth of the snow these huge creatures are 
unable to move rapidly, they fall an easy prey to the Indian, who over- 
takes them readily upon his snow-shoes, and despatches them with his 
bow and arrow, or drives his lance to their hearts. This being the 
season for gathering the robes, it is also a period of great slaughter. 
The skins being stripped off, the carcasses are generally left to the 
wolves, the Indians laying in during the fall a supply of dried meat for 
the winter. Catlin has also given an illustration of Indians disguised 
in wolf-skins creeping upon a herd that is unsuspectingly grazing on the 
* Letters, Goadby's English ed., p. 68. 
+ Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, p. 18, footnote, 
t North American Indians, Vol. II, plates cvii-cxiii. ALLEN.] 
THE CHASE OF THE BUFFALO. 
575 
level prairie, where they are shot down before they are aware of their 
danger by their disguised enemies.* 
Lewis and Clarke describe a very novel method of destroying the buf- 
faloes formerly practised by the Minnetarees of the Upper Missouri. 
This mode of hunting was to select one of the most active and fleet 
young men, who, disguised with a buffalo-skin fastened about his body, 
with the horns and ears so secured as to deceiye the buffalo, placed him- 
self at a convenient distance between the herd of buffalo and some of the 
river precipices, which sometimes extend for miles. His companions 
in the meantime get in the rear and along the flanks of the herd, and, 
showing themselves at a given signal, advance upon the herd. The 
herd thus alarmed runs from the hunters toward the disguised Indian, 
whom they follow at full speed toward the river. The Indian who 
thus acts as a decoy, when the precipice is reached, suddenly secures 
himself in some crevice of the cliff which he had previously selected, 
leaving the herd on the brink. It is then impossible for the foremost of 
the herd to retreat or to turn aside, being pressed on by those behind, 
who see no danger except from the pursuing Indians. They are thus 
tumbled headlong over the cliff, strewing the shore with their dead 
bodies. The Indians then select as much meat as they wish, the rest 
being abandoned to the wolves. A little above the mouth of Judith 
River, on the Missouri, Lewis and Clarke passed a precipice, about one 
hundred and twenty feet in height, at the base of which lay scattered 
the fragments of at least one hundred carcasses of buffaloes, although 
many had already beencarried away by the water.t 
Lewis and Clarke also describe the Indian method of hunting the buf- 
falo on the ice, as witnessed by them March 29,1805, at their wintering- 
post on the Missouri River, about thirty miles above the present site of 
Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory. Every spring, say these 
authors, as the river is breaking up, the plains are set on fire by the 
Indians. The buffaloes are thus tempted to cross the river in search of 
the fresh green grass that springs up immediately after the burning. 
In crossing they often find themselves insulated on large pieces of float- 
ing ice. The Indians seize these opportunities for their attack, passing 
nimbly across the trembling ice, where the footsteps of the huge animals 
are unsteady and insecure. The buffalo being thus unable to offer re- 
sistance, the hunter gives him his death-wound and paddles his ice-raft 
to the shore and secures his prey.| 
The Indians of the Northern Plains were long in the habit of hunting 
the buffalo by impounding them, or by driving them into an artificial 
enclosure constructed for the purpose, within which the buffaloes were 
at their mercy. Various descriptions of this method have been given 
by different travellers, but one of the most recent is that by Hind, in his 
Narrative of the Assiuniboine and Saskatchewan Expedition,''§ where 
he describes the method as practised in 1859 by the Plain Cree Indians 
of the Qu'appelle and Saskatchewan Plains. The pound is described 
as circular, enclosing an area of about one hundred and twenty feet in 
diameter, formed of the trunks of trees set in the ground and bound 
together by withes, and braced by external supports. Converging rows 
of bushes extend from the pound a distance of several miles into the 
prairie, where their extremities are about one and a half to two miles 
apart. These bushes are termed "dead men," and serve to guide the 
* North American Indians, Vol. II, pp. 249-257. 
t Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, Vol. I, p. 235. 
t Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, Vol. I, p. 175. 
6 Canadian Exploring Expeditions, etc., Vol. I, pp. 355-359. 576 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
buffaloes into the pound. When all is ready for action, skilled hunters 
mounted on fleet ponies, partly surround a herd and start them in the 
direction of the pound, being aided by confederates stationed in hollows, 
who, when the buffaloes take a wrong direction, rise and wave their 
robes to change their course. If when the " dead men " are reached the 
buffaloes are disposed to pass through them, Indians stationed behind 
appear, and by the shaking of robes urge on the herd toward the pound. 
Thus the band is pressed on between the narrowing lines of "dead men" 
to the entrance of the pound. This is closed by a heavy tree-trunk placed 
about a foot from the ground, inside of which is a ditch sufficiently deep 
to prevent the enclosed buffaloes from jumping out. No sooner has the 
fatal leap been made than the imprisoned animals rush wildly around 
the enclosure in search of some point of escape. With the utmost silence, 
women and children hold their robes before every orifice, until the whole 
herd is brought in. When all are enclosed the slaughter begins; the 
hunters, climbing to the top of the fence, spear or shoot, with bows and 
arrows or firearms, the bewildered buffaloes now so wholly within their 
power. Soon rendered frantic with rage and fear, the stronger toss, 
crush, or impale the weaker. In this dreadful scene of confusion and 
slaughter, says Hind, " the shouts and screams of the excited Indians 
rise above the roaring of the bulls, the bellowing of the cows, and the 
piteous moaning of the calves. The dying struggles of so many huge 
and powerful animals crowded together create a revolting and terrible 
scene, dreadful from the excess of its cruelty and waste of life, but with 
occasional displays of wonderful brute strength and rage; while man, 
in his savage, untutored, and heathen state, shows, both in deed and 
expression, how little he is superior to the noble beasts he so wantonly 
and cruelly destroys." 
" The conflict over," says Hind, " animals of every age, from old bulls 
to young calves of three months old, were huddled together, in all the 
forced attitudes of violent death. Some lay on their backs, with eyes 
starting from their heads, and tongues thrust out through clotted gore, 
and others were impaled on the horns of the old and strong bulls. Others 
again, which had been tossed, were lying with broken backs, two or 
three deep. One little calf hung suspended on the horns of a bull, which 
had impaled it in the wild race round and round the pound." Of the 
two hundred to two hundred and fifty animals usually killed at each im- 
pounding, only the best and fattest are utilized, the flesh of these being 
removed and dried in the sun. 
Sometimes the attempts at impounding are unsuccessful, an instance 
of which is mentioned by Mr. Hind. After the pound was nearly full, 
an old bull espied a narrow crevice which had not been closed by the 
robes of those on the outside, whose duty it was to conceal every 
orifice; making a dash at this, he forced himself through, breaking the 
fence, when the whole herd ran helter-skelter through the gap, a few 
only being speared or shot through with arrows in their attempt to 
escape. 
Simpson says that in January, 1840, the buffaloes were so numerous 
about Carlton House as to render it necessary to remove the haystacks 
into the Fort to prevent their being devoured by the buffaloes. In the 
vicinity of the fort were three camps of Assinniboines, each of whom 
had its buffalo pound, into which they drove forty or fifty animals daily; 
" and I afterwards learned," says Simpson, " that in other places these 
pounds were actually formed of piled-up carcasses." * 
* Simpson (Thomas), Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America, 
etc., pp. 402, 404. ALLEN. 1 
THE CHASE OF THE BUFFALO. 
577 
Audubon states that the Gros Ventres, Blackfeet, and Assinniboines 
often also took the buffalo in large pens in a similar manner. Two con- 
verging fences, built of sticks, logs, and brushwood, form in a similar 
way a funnel-shaped entrance to the enclosure or " park," as it is usually 
called, which may be either square or round according to the nature of 
the ground. The 'narrow end or entrance is always on the verge of a 
sudden break in the prairie, ten or fifteen feet deep, and is made as 
strong as possible. When the pen is ready a young man, very swift of 
foot, starts at daylight towards the herd that is to be taken, provided 
with a bison's hide and head, with which he is to disguise himself for 
the purpose of acting as a decoy. On nearing the herd he bleats like a 
calf, and makes his way slowly towards the mouth of the converging 
fences leading to the pen. Repeating the cry at intervals, the buffaloes 
follow the decoy, while mounted Indians, riding to and fro along the 
flanks and rear of the herd, urge them on towards the funnel. A crowd 
of men, women, and children then come and assist in frightening them, 
the disguised Indian still occasionally bleating. As soon as the buffa- 
loes have fairly entered the road to the pen, the decoy runs to the edge 
of the precipice, quickly descends, and makes his escape by climbing 
over the fence forming the pen. The herd follows on until the leader 
is forced to leap down into the pen, and is followed by the whole herd, 
which being thus ensnared is easily' destroyed, even the women and 
children participating in the slaughter.* 
This method, if not still practised in the Yellowstone country, was in 
use there at no distant date, since while with the Yellowstone Expedi- 
tion of 1873 I several times met with the remains of these pounds and 
their converging fences in the region above the mouth of the Big Horn 
River. They are here, I was told, used in entrapping the elk and deer 
as well as the buffalo; and, according to Charlevoix, the Indians of 
Canada formerly hunted the moose, the caribou, and the deer in a some- 
what similar manner. 
On the plains, where no timber is available for the construction of 
pounds, the Indians pursue a different but an almost equally destructive 
method. The hunting party, numbering usually hundreds of horsemen, 
select such a portion of a large herd as they desire to destroy, and, 
surrounding them, thus cut them off from the rest of the herd, and pre- 
vent their escape in every direction by enclosing them with a cordon of 
armed horsemen. The slaughter is begun simultaneously on all sides; 
and whichever way the herd moves they encounter their invincible and 
deadly enemies. The slaughter usually continues until the whole " sur- 
round " is killed, often numbering hundreds of animals. In their casual 
hunts the Indians simply follow the herds on horseback, shooting from 
the saddle when in full pursuit, using either bows and arrows or the 
modern fire-arms with great dexterity. 
Descriptions of the systematic expeditions of the Red River half-breed 
hunters have been given with greater or less fulness byT McLean, Ross, 
IIind,t and others. The distinctive features of these grand hunting ex- 
peditions are their magnitude, the number of persons engaged in them, 
and the almost military character of their organization. As previously 
stated, these expeditions generally numbered from five hundred to upwards 
of twelve hundred carts, accompanied by from two hundred and fifty to 
six hundred hunters, nearly twice this number of women and children, 
* Audubon and Bachman's Quadrupeds of North America, Vol. II, p. 49. 
t McLean (John), Notes of Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory, 
Vol. II, pp. 297-302.; Ross (Alexander), The Red River Settlement, pp. 255-264 ; Hind 
(II. Y.), Canad. Expl. Expedition, Vol. II, pp. 110, 111. 
37 G s 578 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
besides a draught animal (either a horse or an ox) and a dog to each 
cart, and riding animals in addition for the hunters. Setting out from 
Fort Garry, the expeditions for many years hunted over the Pembina 
plains, extending their trips southward and westward over the prairies 
and plains of the Red River, the Shayenne, and the Coteau de Missouri. 
The Red River half-breed hunters have undoubtedly done more to ex- 
terminate the buffalo than any other single cause, and have long since 
wholly extirpated them throughout not only this vast region, but also 
over the extensive prairies of the Assinniboine, the Qu'appelle, and the 
lower Saskatchewan. Their method of hunting was for several hundred 
horsemen armed with fire-arms to make a grand simultaneous rush into 
the very midst of the immense herds. An attack that Mr. Ross wit- 
nessed he thus describes: "Our array in the field must have been a 
grand and imposing one to those who had never seen the like before. 
No less than four hundred huntsmen, all mounted, and anxiously wait- 
ing for the word 'Start!' took up their position in a line at one end of 
the camp, while Captain Wilkie, with bis spy-glass at his eye, surveyed 
the buffalo, examined the ground, and issued his orders. At eight 
o'clock the whole cavalcade broke ground and made for the buffalo; first 
at a slow trot, then at a gallop, and lastly at full speed. Their advance 
was over a dead level, the plain having no hollow or shelter of any kind 
to conceal their approachWhen the horsemen started, the 
cattle might have been a mile and a half ahead ; but they had approached 
to within four or five hundred yards before the bulls curved their tails 
or pawed the ground. In a moment more the herd took flight, and horse 
and rider are presently seen bursting in among them; shots are heard, 
and all is smoke, dust, and hurry. The fattest are first singled out for 
slaughter, and in less time than we have occupied with the description 
a thousand carcasses strew the plain. Those who have seen a squadron 
of horse dart into battle may imagine the scene, which we have no skill 
to depict. The earth seemed to tremble when the horses started ; but 
when the animals fled it was like the shock of an earthquake. The air 
was darkened; the rapid firing, at first distinct, soon became more and 
more faint, and at last died away in the distance. Two hours, and all 
was over; but several hours elapsed before the result was known, or the 
hunters reassembled; .... in the evening no less than thirteen 
hundred and seventy-five tongues were brought into camp."* 
The dexterity in loading and firing on horseback while at full speed 
exhibited by these half-breeds, as well as their tact in recognizing their 
game on the field of slaughter after the killing is over, is represented 
as surprising. Formerly, when hunting with the old flint-lock musket, 
says Mr. Taylor,! they would drop a charge of powder into the palm of 
the hand, thence into the muzzle of the gun, following it with a bullet 
from a stock carried in the mouth, firing as often as this operation could 
be repeated. The use of the modern breech-loading arms, however, 
long since rendered this process needless. They seldom leave a mark 
to designate their own animals, though some do so, leaving first a cap, 
then a sash, and so on, until, as often happens, these means of designa- 
tion fail, five or six to a dozen buffaloes being generally killed in a 
single run by a good hunter. Riding in clouds of dust and smoke, in 
company with hundreds of other horsemen, crossing and recrossing each 
other's tracks, among dead and wounded as well as among the terri- 
fied and fleeing animals, it certainly evinces, on the part of the hunter, 
no small degree of discriminating power, after an hour of such wild, 
*Red River Settlement, pp. 255-257. 
IMS. Notes, as previously cited. ALLEN.] 
THE CHASE OF THE BUFFALO. 
579 
bewildering confusion, to tell not only the number of animals he has 
killed, but also the exact spot where each lies. Yet this, we are told, is 
constantly done. 
According to Simpson, the Red River hunter, in winter, when the 
snow was too deep to pursue them on horseback, approached the buffa- 
loes by crawling to them on the snow, disguised sometimes by a close 
dun-colored cap, furnished with upright ears, to give him the appearance 
of a wolf, which, through constant association, the buffaloes regard 
without dread. Towards spring, when the deep snow is covered with 
a hard crust, which, while it supports the hunter, proves a great im- 
pediment to the buffaloes, they are easily run down by the hunters, and 
despatched with daggers while floundering in the deep drifts, even 
women and boys assisting in killing the then almost helpless animals.* 
The two modes of hunting the buffalo chiefly practised at present are 
the pursuit on horseback and the " still hunt." The first named is the 
one usually chosen when sport and excitement are the things mainly 
desired, the still hunt being practised when a supply of meat or of hides 
is the abject. The latter method affords but little excitement, and en- 
tails, with proper precautions, little or no risk of life or limb on the 
part of the hunter. Parties hunting for pleasure prefer the chase on 
horseback, shooting from the saddle with heavy revolvers at close range 
when at full gallop. Success depends almost wholly, provided the hun- 
ter is a good rider, upon the speed and bottom of his horse, and is 
really about as noble sport as attacking a herd of domestic cattle would 
be. The chase on horseback of a drove of Texan cattle would be far 
more dangerous, and attended probably with as much excitement, 
except that in the case of the buffalo the hunter has the con- 
sciousness of pursuing a nominally wild animal, and hence legitimate 
game. That the chase on horseback affords the wildest excitement is an 
undeniable fact. The swift pursuit of the flying mass of buffaloes, the 
mingling with the terrified herd, the singling out of the victim, the 
rapid shots at the huge moving bulk of hair and flesh, at so close range 
that the game is almost within reach of the hand, the tottering fall or 
the headlong tumble of the doomed animal, the risk of pursuit by a 
wounded bull maddened with pain, the general din and confusion, with 
the double risk of collision with the blindly fleeing monsters or of be- 
ing thrown by treacherous marmot or badger holes, or anon the long 
pursuit of an animal which, though pierced with a dozen balls, still 
rushes on, can, of course, yield only excitement of the intensest kind, 
both for the rider and his steed. This method is the favorite one with 
hunting parties from the East or from abroad, as well as of the officers 
and soldiers of the United States Cavalry, when the latter are stationed 
within or near the range of the buffalo, or are passing through its 
range, at the expense, usually, of several of the best horses in the com- 
mand. The destruction of the buffalo during these hunts is not gener- 
ally very great, though amounting annually, in the aggregate, to many 
thousands ; but the demoralization of the herd produced by the fright 
and the chase has a most deleterious influence on their stability and in- 
crease. 
The still hunt is far more fatal, and is the method adopted by the pro- 
fessional hunter, who throughout the year makes it his chief business 
to hunt the buffalo for its commercial products. The buffalo being 
naturally unsuspicious and sluggish, even to stupidity, is readily ap- 
proached within easy range, even in a level country, where the slight 
herbage of the plains is the only shelter. Buffalo-hunting hence requires 
* Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America, etc., p. 404. 580 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
much less tact and skill than the hunting of most other large game, es- 
pecially deer and pronghorns. The chief precaution necessary is to 
keep to the leeward of the herd, in order not to give them the "scent," 
as this alarms them even when no enemy is in sight, being sufficient to 
"stampede" a herd at a long distance. The buffaloes can ordinarily be 
approached to within a thousand yards in a perfectly level and open 
country, and with a slight growth of herbage for shelter it is easy to 
creep up to within a hundred yards, and by aid of ravines to within 
twenty or thirty paces. I have seen hunters approach within thirty 
yards of a herd when their only cover was grass and weeds a foot or 
so in height. The old bulls are always less wary than the cows and 
younger bulls; they also, to a great extent, keep in the rear and on the 
outskirts of the herd. As generally only the younger animals are de- 
sired, and especially the young cows, the hunters often have to creep 
past the old bulls in order to get within range of the cows. Where 
slight inequalities of the ground have favored the hunters, I have seen 
them pass within a few paces of the quietly reclining, ruminating old 
bulls, in trying to get within range of the more desirable game beyond 
without the patriarchs of the herd being alarmed by the hunter's ap- 
proach. The half-wild Texan steers are often far more wary than the 
unsuspecting herds of buffaloes. 
The professional hunter, when desiring to load his teams with meat, 
will rarely make his first shot at a greater distance than fifty to seventy- 
five yards. If the shot result fatally, the herd rarely moves more than 
fifty yards before stopping to look for the cause of the mishap to their 
fallen and turning half round to get a good view rearward, 
they thus present themselves in the best possible position to the hunter 
at still short range. Here others fall before the hunter's shots; the herd, 
again slightly startled, moves on a few paces, and again stops to gaze. 
The hunter, still keeping prostrate, approaches, if necessary, undercover 
of those already killed, and continues the work of destruction. The 
shots are thus often repeated till fifteen, twenty, or even thirty buffalctes 
are killed before the herd becomes thoroughly alarmed and, in hunter's 
parlance, "stampedes." By keeping prostrate the hunter is able to 
creep up to the herd again as it recedes, till he has killed enough to fur- 
nish loads for his teams; and even sometimes he has to rise and drive 
away the stupid creatures to prevent the living from playfully goring 
the dead! When the hunter is thus successful, it is termed "getting a 
stand on the herd." A "stand" is most surely made in nearly level 
ground. In shooting from ravines, the herd usually runs away after 
three to five or six of their number have fallen. During the rutting 
season, if a cow falls at the first shot, the hunter is pretty sure of a 
"stand,"and of getting a dozen or more shots, if he keeps prostrate and 
uses due caution. As soon as he rises the buffaloes seem at once to 
recognize the cause of their trouble, and generally immediately' stam- 
pede; but so long as he remains prone they seem to have no perception 
of the character of their enemy, and often do not notice him at all. A 
"stand" can usually be obtained, by due care, at any time from May to 
December, but during the rest of the year the buffaloes are more wary, 
and often very lean, and the hunters say that the poorer they get, the 
wilder they become. 
The Kansas hunter for sever 1 years was generally able to reach the 
herds by an easy drive from eiihcr of the railroads that now intersect 
the State. Generally equipped with one to three four-mule teams, he 
was able, for a part of the season at least, to make daily trips from the 
herds to the points of shipment, although not unfrequently two days ALLEN.] 
THE CHASE OF THE BUFFALO. 
581 
were required to enable him to load his teams and make the round trip. 
The chief of a party is usually mounted on a pony, and, riding in advance, 
often has enough animals killed to furnish loads for his teams by the 
time the latter reach the scene of action. The dead buffaloes are then 
speedily " butchered,"* a few minutes sufficing for each. The "saddle," 
or the two hind quarters, and the tongue are usually the only parts 
saved ; but in the case of calves and very fat yearlings the whole carcass 
is taken. The usual weight of a saddle is about two hundred pounds, 
which is sold at an average price of about three cents per pound deliv- 
ered at the cars, the buyer being generally on the spot to inspect it and 
superintend its packing for shipment. 
The regular or "professional" hunter formerly followed the buffalo 
herds the whole year, moving eastward or westward along the lines of rail- 
road as the buffaloes at different seasons changed their range. When the 
weather was too warm to allow of the shipment of the meat to Eastern 
cities, they killed the creatures for their hides, each hunter in this way 
destroying hundreds in the course of a few months, though getting 
hardly enough for them to pay his expenses. A few of the more enter- 
prising preserved a portion of the meat by salting and smoking it. As 
no skins can be taken from those from which the quarters are taken, an 
animal is thus sacrified for each hide taken and for each saddle saved. 
The life of a buffalo hunter is one of hardship and exposure, and yet 
one of remarkable fascination to those who have ever engaged in such ' 
pursuits. In winter, owing to sudden changes of temperature, the 
hunter is often in great danger, since he is liable to be overtaken by 
storms and extreme cold when far out on the prairie, many miles from 
any means of protection. The early part of the winter of 1871-72 was 
one of remarkable severity in the West, even as far south as the plains 
of Northern Kansas, where, in December, 1871, several hunters perished 
from the cold, and many others were maimed from having been frost- 
bitten, some of whom narrowly escaped with their lives. Within the 
winter range of the northern herds of the Kansas buffaloes, a lone tree 
here and there, at the head of some ravine, usually forms the hunter's 
sole dependence for firewood. His own improvidence, however, often 
deprives him of many comforts, as well as a considerable degree of se- 
curity, which a little trouble and care would secure to him. 
The life of a hunter seems always to tend more or less to barbarism, 
but especially is this the case with the buffalo-hunter. The " buffalo 
rangers" of the lied River Settlements are described by Ross, Hind, 
and others, as speedily becoming unfitted for agricultural or other civ- 
ilized pursuits. Improvident and unthrifty in their habits, they riot in 
plenty during a part of the year, and again verge upon starvation be- 
fore the arrival of their annual hunting season. The buffalo-hunter of 
the Plains contrasts unfavorably in many respects with his Rocky 
Mountain brother. With the less degree of skill required in the chase 
of the stupid, unwieldy bison, as compared with the tact and caution 
required in the successful pursuit of the watchful pronghorn, the timid 
deer, the elk, or the bighorn, there is a corresponding lack of thrift and 
energy on the part of the hunter. In place of the buckskin suit of the 
Rocky Mountain huntev, the buffalo-hunter goes clad in a coarse dress 
of canvas, stiffened with blood and grease. His hair often goes uncut 
and uncombed for months together, and his hands are frequently un- 
washed for many days. The culinary apparatus of a whole party con- 
sists of a single large coffee-pot, a "Dutch-oven," and a skillet, and the 
*The hunters appear to generally restrict this term to the dressing of the slain ani- 
mals; " butchering," in their parlance, does not include the killing. 582 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
table-set of a tin cup to each man, the latter vessel often consisting 
merely of a battered fruit-can. Each man's hunting-knife not only does 
duty in butchering the buffalo, but is the sole implement used in de- 
spatching his food, supplying the places of spoon and fork as well as knife. 
The bill of fare consists of strong coffee, often without milk or sugar, 
"yeast powder bread," and buffalo meat fried in buffalo tallow. When 
the meal is cooked, the party encircle the skillet, dip their bread in the 
fat, and eat their meat with their fingers. When bread fails, as often 
happens, " buffalo straight," or buffalo meat alone, affords them nour- 
ishing sustenance. Occasionally, however, the fare is varied with the 
addition of potatoes and canned fruits. They sleep generally in the 
open air, in winter as well as in summer, subjected to every inclemency 
of the weather. As may well be imagined, a buffalo-hunter, at the end 
of the season, is by no means prepossessing in his appearance, being, in 
addition to his filthy aspect, a paradise for hordes of nameless parasites. 
They are yet a rollicking set, and occasionally include men of intelli- 
gence, who formerly possessed an ordinary degree of refinement. Gen- 
erally none are more conscious of their unfitness for civilized society 
than themselves, and after a few years of such free border-life they can 
hardly be induced to abandon it and resume the restraints of civili- 
zation. 
Although successful in the pursuit of the buffalo, their success arises 
from the unsuspicious nature of their victims rather than from skill in 
the use or selection of their arms. The improved breech-loading United 
States musket is their favorite weapon, and most of them will use no 
other. A few employ Sharp's and Winchester rifles; arms of small 
caliber, however, they generally despise. Yet with these heavy arms, 
used, as they are, at short range, only about one shot in three proves 
fatal, many of the poor beasts getting but a broken leg in place of a fatal 
shot.* This is owing in part to carelessness or lack of skill in shooting, 
and in part to the inaccuracy of the arms. However good the gun may 
be originally, it soon deteriorates and is eventually ruined by rough 
usage. A few of the hunters have good guns, take good care of them, 
and use them effectively, killing their game as readily at three hundred 
and four hundred yards as do the others at one-fourth that distance. A 
rifle having a calibre of inches is as effective a weapon against the 
buffalo as need be used, it accurate and skillfully employed, the fatality 
of the shot depending not so much upon the size of the ball used as 
upon the part of the animal hit. I have seen, for instance, an old buf- 
falo bull shot entirely through the body at a distance of two hundred 
and thirty yards by a ball from a six-pound rifle, having a calibre of 
otdy T4(jL inches, the wound killing the animal almost instantly. 
4.-DOMESTICATION OF THE BUFFALO. 
Now that the buffalo is apparently so nearly exterminated, it is greatly 
to be regretted, not only that its ultimate extinction has been so rap- 
idly hastened by improvident and wanton slaughter, but that no per- 
sistent attempts have as yet been made to utilize this valuable animal 
by domestication. Never, perhaps, was the time more favorable for 
such experiments than now, since there are not only intelligent settlers 
living within or near the boundaries of its range, where the experiments 
might be tried without any of the risks that would attend a change of 
* When returning from a buffalo-hunt on the Kansas plains in January, 1872, my 
party fell in with a small band of these unfortunates, about thirty in number, nearly 
all of whom were in some way maimed, the greater part having broken legs. ALLEN.] 
DOMESTICATION OF THE BUFFALO. 
583 
climate, but easy access to its haunts from the Eastern States is afforded 
by railroads, by means of which, at comparatively little cost and trouble, 
numbers might be taken to any portion of the older States of the Union. 
The early explorers of the Mississippi Valley believed that the buffalo, 
besides being valuable for its flesh and hide, might be made to take the 
place of the domestic ox in agricultural pursuits, and at the same time 
yield a fleece of wool equal in value, in respect to quality, to that of the 
sheep. That the buffalo calf may be easily reared and thoroughly tamed 
needs not at this late day to be proved. The known instances of their 
domestication are too many to admit even of enumeration, but they have 
usually been kept merely as objects of curiosity, and little or no care has 
been given to their reproduction in confinement, and few attempts have 
been made to train them to labor. 
As early as 1750, Kai m states that young buffaloes had frequently 
been taken to Quebec and kept among the tame cattle, but he adds that 
the climate there seemed too severe for them to bear, and that they 
commonly died in three or four years. The same writer also states that 
the calves of " the wild cowsand oxen . . . which are to be met with 
in Carolina and other provinces to the south of Pennsylvania," had been 
obtained by " several people of distinction," who " brought them up 
among the tame cattle." " When grown up," he adds, " they were per- 
fectly tame, but at the same time very unruly', so that there was no in- 
closure strong enough to resist them if they had a mind to break through 
it; for as they possess a great strength in their neck, it was easy for 
them to overthrow the pales with their horns and to get into the corn- 
fields ; and as soon as they had made a road, all the tame cattle followed 
them. They likewise copulated with the latter, and by that means gen- 
erated, as it were, a new breed."* 
Bernard Romans also says (writing a century ago), "The bounteous 
hand of nature has here given us an animal which, by experience, we 
know may easily be domesticated, whose fine wooll might yield good 
profit, and whose flesh is equal at least to our beef, and yields as much 
tallow; i mean the buff aloe." t 
Gallatin also says that they were not only domesticated in Virginia, 
but that they were bred with domestic cattle, and that the mixed 
breed was fertile. "As doubts have lately been raised upon that point," 
he says, writing forty years ago, "I must say that the mixed breed was 
quite common fifty [now ninety] years ago, in some of the northwestern 
counties of Virginia; and that the cows, the issue of that mixture, 
propagated like all others. No attempt that I know of was ever made 
by the inhabitants fo tame a buffalo of full growth. But calves were 
occasionally caught by the dogs and brought alive into the settlements. 
A bull thus raised was for a number of years owned in my immediate 
vicinity by a farmer living on the Mopongahela, adjoining Mason and 
Dixon's line. lie was permitted to roam at large, and was no more 
dangerous to man than any bull of the common species. But to them 
he was formidable, and would not suffer any to approach within two 
or three miles of bis own range. Most of the cows I knew were 
descended from him. For want of a fresh supply of the wild animal 
they have now merged into the common kind. They were no favorites, 
as they yielded less milk. The superior size and strength of the buffalo 
might have improved the breed of oxen for draft, but this was not 
attended to, horses being almost exclusively employed in that quarter 
* Kalin (Peter), Travels in North America (Forster's translation), Vol. I, p. 162. 
tNat. Hist, of East and West Florida, p. 17-1. 584 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
for agricultural pursuits."* He adds that the buffalo is very intracta- 
ble, and is not known to have been domesticated by the Indians.! 
Sibley observes, in speaking of the buffalo of the Red River of the 
North, that " in spring the calves are easily weaned, and when trained 
to labor become quite useful. One farmer, who had broken a bull to the 
plough, performed the whole work of the field with his aid alone."!: 
Mr. Robert Wickliffe, in a letter addressed to Messrs. Audubon and 
Bachman, dated Lexington, Kentucky,November G, 1843, has quite fully 
recorded the results of his own efforts at domesticating the buffalo. He 
says : " The herd of buffalo I now possess have descended from one or 
two cows that I purchased from a man who brought them from the 
country called the Upper Missouri; I have had them for about thirty 
years, but from giving them away and the occasional killing of them by 
mischievous persons, as well as other causes, my whole stock does not 
exceed ten or twelve. I have sometimes confied them in separate parks 
from other cattle, but generally they herd and feed with my stock of 
farm-cattle. . . . Ou getting possession of the tame buffaloes, I 
endeavored to cross them as much as I could with my common cows, to 
which experiment I found the tame bull unwilling to accede, and he 
was always shy of the buffalo cow, but the buffalo bull was willing 
to breed with the common cow. 
" From the domestic cow I have crossed half-breeds, one of which 
was a heifer; this I put with a domestic bull, and it produced a bull- 
calf. This I castrated and it made a very fine steer, and when killed 
produced very fine beef. I bred from the same heifer several calves, 
and then, that the experiment might be perfect, I put one of them to 
the buffalo bull, and she brought me a bull calf, which I raised to be a 
very fine large animal, perhaps the only one in the world of his blood, 
namely, a three-quarter, half quarter, and a half-quarter of the common 
blood. After making these experiments, I have left them to propagate 
their breed themselves, so that I have only had a few half-breeds, and 
they always proved the same, even by a buffalo bull. The full-blood is 
not as large as the improved stock, but as large as the ordinary stock 
of the country. The crossed or half-blood are larger than either 
the half-blood or common cow. The hump, brisket, ribs, and tongue of 
the full and half-blooded are preferable to those of the common beef, 
but the round and other parts are much inferior. The udder or bag of 
the buffalo is smaller than that of the common cow, but I have allowed 
the calves of both to run with their dams upon the same pasture, and 
those of the buffalo were always the fattest; and old hunters have told 
me that when a young buffalo calf is taken, it requires the milk of two 
cows to raise it. Of this I have no doubt, having received the same 
information from hunters of the greatest veracity. The bag or udder of 
the half-breed is larger than that of full-blooded animals, and they 
would, I have no doubt, make good milkers. 
" The wool of the wild buffalo grows on their descendants when domes- 
ticated, but I think they have less of wool than their progenitors. The 
domesticated buffalo still retains the grunt of the wild animal, and is in- 
capable of making any other noise, and they will observe the habit of 
having select places within their feeding-grounds to wallow in. 
" The buffalo has a much deeper shoulder than the tame ox, but is 
* Gallatin (Albert), A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes of North America ; Trans. Amer. 
Antiquarian Soc., Vol. II, p. 139, footnote. 
+ Dr. Woodhouse states that he had seen " a few of these animals tamed in the Creek 
nation, running with the common cattle."-Sitgreaves's lieport of an Expert, doivn the 
Zuni and Colorado Rivers, p. 57. 
t Sibley (H. H.), in Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian 
Tribes of the United States, Vol. IV, p. 110. ALLEN. J 
DOMESTICATION OF THE BUFFALO. 
585 
lighter behind. He walks more actively than the latter, and I think has 
more strength than a common ox of the same weight. 1 have broken 
them to the yoke, and found them capable of making excellent oxen; 
and for drawing wagons, carts, or other heavily laden vehicles on long 
journeys, they would, I think, be greatly preferable to the common ox. 
I have as yet had no opportunity of testing the longevity of the buffalo, 
as all mine that have died did so from accident, or were killed because 
they became aged. I have some cows that are nearly twenty years old, 
that are healthy and vigorous, and one of them has now a sucking calf. 
"The young buffalo calf is of a sandy red or rufous color, and com- 
mences changing dark brown at about six months old, which last color 
it always retains. The mixed breeds are of various colors; I have had 
them striped with black, on a gray ground, like the zebra, some of them 
brindled red, some pure red with white faces, and others red without 
any markings of white. The mixed bloods have not only produced in 
my stock from the tame and the buffalo bull, but I have seen the half- 
bloods reproducing, viz, those that were the product of the common 
cow and wild buffalo bull. I was informed that, at the first settlement 
of the country, cows that were considered best for milking were from 
the half blood, down to the quarter, and even eighth, of the buffalo 
blood. But my experiments have not satisfied me that the half-buffalo 
bull will produce again. That the half-breed heifer will be productive 
from either race, as 1 have before stated, I have tested beyond the possi- 
bility of a doubt. 
"The domesticated buffalo retains the same haughty bearing that dis- 
tinguishes him in his natural state. He will, however, feed or fatten on 
whetever suits the tame cow, and requires about the same amount of 
food. I have never milked either the full-blood or mixed breed, but 
have no doubt they might be made good milkers, although their bags 
or udders are less than those of the common cow ; yet, from the strength 
of the calf, the dam must yield as much or even more milk than the 
common cow."* 
From the foregoing the following facts are sufficiently attested : (1) 
That the buffalo is readily susceptible of domestication ; (2) that it in- 
terbreeds freely with the domestic cow; (3) that the half-breeds are 
fertile; and (4) that they readily amalgamate with the domestic cattle. 
The advantages that arise from the mixed race are less clearly apparent, 
as their adaptability to labor seems as yet to have not been properly 
tested, although the experiments of Mr. Wickliffe offer encouragement 
in this direction. A larger race than either of the original stocks seems, 
*Audubon and Bachman's Quadrupeds of North America, Vol. II, pp. 52-54. Mr. 
Wickliffe's account of his observations and experiments has been repeatedly quoted 
by different writers on the subject of the domestication of the buffalo (see Baird, 
Patent-Office Report, Agriculture, Part II, 1851-'52, pp. 126-128 ; Hind, Canadian Ex- 
ploring Expedition, Vol. II, p. 113), and embraces nearly all of importance as yet pub- 
lished relating to the subject. 
In this connection may be noticed the astonishing dogmatism with which School- 
craft, four years after the publication of Mr. Wickliffe's account of his experiments in 
domesticating the buffalo, and three years after its republication by Professor Baird, 
asserts that while " the calf of the bison has often been captured on the frontiers, and 
brought up with domestic cattle," and been "measurably tamed," that "it produces no 
cross," and " is utterly barren in this state." He alludes also to the statement of Gomara 
that it is susceptible of domestication, his statement being revived, Schoolcraft adds, 
and " in a manner galvanized by a justly eminent writer [Humboldt], after the uniform 
observation of the French and English colonists of America, disaffirming [!],for more 
than two centuries, the practicability of its domestication"; and further states that 
"all visitors and travellers who have spoken on the subject coincide in the opinion that 
the bison is incapable of domestication, and that it is not without imminent peril to 
themselves that the fierce and untamable herds of it are hunted."-History, Condition, 
and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Part V (1856), p. 49. 586 
REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
however, to result from the crossing of the buffalo with the cow, and a 
probable improvement in milking qualities. 
The domestication of the buffalo has heretofore been undertaken only 
in regions where farm-labor was done chiefly by the use of horses or 
mules. Galissoniere, as already noticed (see anted,, p. 198), writing a 
century and a quarter ago, believed the buffalo would " be adapted to 
ploughing," and that ''they would possess the same advantage that horses 
have over domestic oxen, that is, superior swiftness." but the question 
has as yet received little attention. Being more active than the domes- 
tic ox, it seems highly probable that they might make a superior farm 
animal, especially since, as Professor Shaler suggests to me, they would 
be far better able to endure the intense heat of summer than ordinary 
cattle, besides being swifter and stronger. 
From what is already known of the behavior of the buffalo under 
domestication, it seems altogether tractable and docile. A letter written 
by Mr. P. B. Thompson, sr., to Professor Shaler, respecting the domes- 
tication of the buffalo in Kentucky, bears further on this point. Mr. 
Thompson says (under date of " Harrodsburgh,Ky., October 30, 1875"): 
" In reply to your inquiry relative to the buffaloes formerly owned by 
Col. George C. Thompson, of Shawnee Springs, Mercer County, permit 
me to say that my remembrance of them runs back at least fifty years. 
My first recollection is that there was a bull and three cows. They were 
kept in a park of about sixty acres of blue-grass. In the same park 
were about fifty deer, and from seven to twelve elk. The animals in 
the park were fed but little, and given the same food as other cattle. 
The elk and deer were but slightly domesticated, but the buffaloes be- 
came as gentle as any other cattle that were not constantly handled. I 
have been often within a few feet of them, and have no doubt that they 
could have been used as beasts of labor, or that the females would have 
submitted to milking. There were but few young, they being poor 
breeders, which was probably the effect of neglect. They were very 
long-lived; one of them must have been thirty years old, the others 
over twenty. The bull died many years ago; the last cow about a year 
since. 
" During the whole time I do not think they ever broke a fence, or 
went beyond the limits of the park unless driven. Other cattle were 
put in the park, and it was used at times for a calf lot. They were not 
vicious to either cattle, horses, hogs, or sheet). The two last left were 
cows, who survived the bull at-least fifteen years. They were calved in 
the park, and, as I have said before, were docile and harmless." 
No attempt appears as yet to have been made to perpetuate an un- 
mixed domestic race of the buffalo. Probably after a few generations 
they would lose much of their natural untractableness, and when cas- 
trated would doubtless form superior working cattle, from their greater 
size and strength and great natural agility. While on the plains in 
1871 1 made extensive inquiries as to the possibility of the buffalo being 
domesticated and trained to work, and while the general opinion seemed 
to be that such a thing was wholly feasible, I could not learn that it had 
been properly attempted. I heard of instances where buffaloes had 
been broken to the yoke, and, though strong and serviceable, they were 
at times rather unmanageable. When on a journey they are liable, it 
is said, when thirsty, "to break for water," rushing precipitately down 
the steep banks of the nearest stream to slake their thirst, dragging 
after them the wagon to which they may be attached, with, of course, 
rather unpleasant results. 
The fate of extermination so surely awaits, sooner or later, the buffalo 
in its wild state that its domestication becomes a matter of great inter- ALLEN.] 
DOMESTICATION OF THE BUFFALO. 
587 
est, and is well worthy of the attention of intelligent stock-growers, 
some of whom should be willing to take a little trouble to perpetuate 
the pure race in a domestic state. The attempt can be hardly regarded 
otherwise than as an enterprise that would eventually yield a satisfac- 
tory and probably a profitable result, with the possibility of adding 
another valuable domestic animal to those we already possess. It 
seems probable, also, that a mixed race might be reared to good 
advantage.f*] 
[* Since the original publication of this paper, some months since, I have met with 
the following interesting account of the successful attempt to domesticate the buffalo 
in Howard County, Nebraska, published in the Turf, Field, and Farm newspaper of 
New York City, in the issue of November 10, 1876. An attempt to communicate with 
Mr. Cunningham, the authority for the statements given below, having proved unsuc- 
cessful, I cau only give the matter at second-hand. The account in full is as follows: 
" It has been fully demonstrated, and may be now set down as an established fact, 
that the cross of the buffalo with milch cows are of a gentle disposition, and yield a 
fair amount of very rich milk. The male produce of this cross make excellent bulls, 
and when crossed with good milkers of any of the milch families, yield largely of a 
rich quality of milk, from which the finest butter can be made. In certain sections of 
Nebraska, especially in Howard County, half and quarter bred buffalo stock is quite 
common. Notwithstanding the dairy stock in that State, crossed originally with the 
buffalo, were of an ordinary character, the half-breds yield an average of fourteen to 
sixteen quarts per day, the milk being of a rich and fine flavor, making the best of 
butter, and very nearly equalling the Jerseys in the quantity obtained from a given 
proportion. These facts are obtained from J. W. Cunningham, esq., now of Erie, Pa., 
formerly of Howard County, Nebraska, who vouches for their correctness, having 
largely experimented with these half and quarter bred buffalo cows. This will prove 
of great value to thousands of breeders and farmers in the far West, and notably so 
in view of the fact that besides the dairy quality which these half-breds possess in a 
remarkable degree, they take on flesh and fat rapidly, and make excellent beef." 
In another column of the same issue occurs the following: 
" The long-mooted question whether the buffalo cannot be successfully utilized for 
dairy purposes is now in a fair way of being satisfactorily settled. The apprehen- 
sions hitherto entertained regarding the untamable nature of the buffalo, and that the 
characteristics of this branch of the bovine family would be certain to crop out through 
indefinite crossings, appear to be totally groundless. As will be seen under the head 
of stock items, in this day's issue, the buffalo, or more properly Americau bison 
(Bos americanus), is being used extensively in portions of the State of Nebraska bor- 
dering on the wild prairies of the far West for stock purposes, and that half and quar- 
ter bred females of the bison family yield an abundant supply of rich milk. A remark- 
able feature connected with this cross of the bison with domestic cattle is the fact that 
the color of the bison and the majority of its distinguishing characters disappear after 
successive crossings. Its outward conformation is also in process of time in a great 
degree lost sight of. The hunch, or lump of flesh covering the long spinous processes 
of the dorsal vertebrae, becomes diminished with each successive cross, and will 
doubtless also disappear entirely as the original type becomes merged in the domestic 
animal. 
"Mr. J. W. Cunningham, now living at Erie,Pa., formerly of Howard County, Ne- 
braska, in a recent letter presents many interesting facts in connection with this sub- 
ject, based upon his own experience, which renders them of great importance to the 
farmers and breeders of the western country. He writes: ' The buffaloes on my ranch 
consisted of two young cows and one bull. I fed them carefully with the cows, but 
kept them confined at night. In the spring it was discovered that two of my cows 
were with calf by the buffalo bull. The calves proved to be both heifers. When 
three years old they became mothers, the sire being of short-horn stock. The calves 
were weaned, and the mothers, although showing some of the buffalo characteristics, 
proved to be very good milkers, quite gentle, giving an average of fourteen quarts of 
milk per day for at least five months, and such rich milk I never saw. This strain of 
buffalo stock extends through a considerable section of Howard County. I have a 
half-bred bull of this stock which proves to be both useful and attractive. There are 
others, I learn, in other sections of Nebraska who own half and quarter breeds that 
prove to be very hardy.' From other sources in the West we learn that the cross of 
the American bison with native and grade short-horn cattle has proved completely 
successful, experiments having been tried on a sufficiently large scale to satisfy the 
most skeptical people. Utilizing the buffalo for dairy purposes is an old custom in the 
hot countries of the eastern continent, where almost all the cheese is made of buffalo 
milk. The business in this country is comparatively new and not yet fully developed, 
but we may reasonably hope to see it spread like wildfire in the course of a few years 
throughout the entire western country."-J. A. A.]