The Extermination of the American BisonHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
The Extermination of the American Bison
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
American bison; Wildlife conservation -- United States -- Sources
OREGON.--The only evidence on record of the occurrence of the bison in
Oregon is the following, from Professor Allen's memoir (p. 119):
"Respecting its former occurrence in eastern Oregon, Prof. O. C. Marsh,
under date of New Haven, February 7, 1875, writes me as follows: 'The
most western point at which I have myself observed remains of the
buffalo was in 187 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 remains must have been those of a solitary and very enterprising
straggler.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES (British).--At two or three points only did
the buffaloes of the British Possessions cross the Rocky Mountain
barrier toward British Columbia. One was the pass through which the
Canadian Pacific Railway now runs, 200 miles north of the international
boundary. According to Dr. Richardson, the number of buffaloes which
crossed the mountains at that point were sufficiently noticeable to
constitute a feature of the fauna on the western side of the range. It
is said that buffaloes also crossed by way of the Kootenai Pass, which
is only a few miles north of the boundary line, but the number which did
so must have been very small.
As might be expected from the character of the country, the favorite
range of the bison in British America was the northern extension of the
great pasture region lying between the Missouri River and Great Slave
Lake. The most northerly occurrence of the bison is recorded as an
observation of Franklin in 1820 at Slave Point, on the north side of
Great Slave Lake. "A few frequent Slave Point, on the north side of the
lake, but this is the most northern situation in which they were
observed by Captain Franklin's party."[17]
[Note 17: Sabine, Zoological Appendix to "Franklin's Journey," p. 668.]
Dr. Richardson defined the eastern boundary of the bison's range in
British America as follows: "They do not frequent any of the districts
formed of primitive rocks, and the limits of their range to the
eastward, within the Hudson's 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 Winnipeg, 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 westward were formerly limited to 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 annually
increasing.[18]
[Note 18: Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. 1, p, 279-280.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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