Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

This extraordinary curiosity was discovered about two years since by a party of trappers belonging to Capt. Bent’s company, lying on the side of one of the beaver dams of the Rio Grande of the north, [a stream emptying itself into the gulf of California,] whose water it is said possess the petrifying qualities, in an eminent degree, it’s shores abounding in specimens of animal and vegetable productions in a petrified state. The petrified buffalo is described by those who have seen it, to be as perfect in its petrifaction as when living, with the exception of a hole in one of its sides, about four inches in diameter, around which the hair has been worn off, probably by the friction of the water in which it must have lain in for ages past, to have produced such a phenomenon. The hair on the humps of the shoulders, neck, forehead and tail, though converted into almost a smooth surface, may be easily discerned. The horns, eyes, nostrils, mouth and legs, are as perfect in the stone as their pristine state.
The country in which this rare specimen was found, is inhabited by the Eateaux, a roving tribe of Indians who subsist, a great portion of their lives, on insects, snakes, toads, roots, etc. This tribe being particularly hostile to the whites, renders the acquisition of their curiosity, not a little hazardous; notwithstanding this and many other difficulties to be surmounted, such as distance, expense, &c., our enterprising citizen. Captain Charles Bent, contemplates procuring and bringing it to the United States with him during the ensuing autumn.