66 ORIGIN OP LIFE IN AMERICA 



supply being consequently inexhaustible. As long as these 

 wild tribes only possessed the bow and arrow, bisons were 

 comparatively safe from their depredations, in spite of the 

 great drives that they were accustomed to organise. On the 

 introduction of firearms, the Indians assisted civilised man 

 to the best of their ability in his utterly wanton destruction 

 of these helpless creatures. The building of railroads across 

 the continent naturally hastened the process of extermination, 

 the completion of the Union Pacific line dividing for ever 

 the bisons of the United States into two great herds. These 

 subsequently became known as the northern and southern 

 herds. The great slaughter of the bison really only began 

 in 1871. Pour years later the southern herd had ceased to 

 exist. The year 1881 witnessed a similar destruction of the 

 northern herd, and at present this most picturesque and im- 

 pressive member of the American fauna is practically extinct 

 in its wild state, but for the small herds alluded to in northern 

 Canada (see Fig. 5). There are other small herds preserved 

 in the Yellowstone Park and in some reservations in western 

 Canada. In them the bison can no longer be said to live 

 altogether in the wild state. 



I mentioned that the bison was looked upon as one of the 

 most typically American species. Nevertheless, we have in 

 eastern Europe a bison which is closely allied to the American 

 species, and from the circumstance that it formerly roamed 

 over a large part of that continent, it might be argued that its 

 cousin from the New World is but a new-comer and in no way 

 typical of America. A certain amount of support for that 

 argument might be derived from the well-known fact of a 

 Pliocene bison (Bison sivalensis) being known from India 

 and Java and another from China. But in America there are 

 likewise bison remains (Bison alleni) which were considered 

 by Professor Marsh to belong to the Pliocene series, while 

 Professor Cope described one even from Nicaragua and 

 Southern Mexico (Bison scaphoceras) . More recently, how- 

 ever, Dr. Lucas * has clearly demonstrated that Cope's bison 

 is a sheep, and that Marsh's specimens are probably referable 

 to the lower Pleistocene, so that it does seem likely after 



* Lucas, F. A., " Fossil Bisons of North America," pp. 756766. 



