244 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1895 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE AMERICAN BISON IN PENNSYLVANIA, "WITH 

 REMARKS ON A NEW FOSSIL SPECIES. 



BY SAMUEL N. RHOADS. 



Pennsylvania enjoys the distinction of being the scene of the most 

 easterly range of the buffalo, Bison bison, in North America. Dr. 

 J. A. Allen, whose excellent memoir on the American Bisons fur- 

 nishes the best data on this subject, has conclusively proved its ex- 

 istence up to the beginning of this century as far east us Buffalo 

 Valley, near Lewisburg, in Union County. The last buffalo killed 

 in that region was shot by Col. John Kelly, "about 1790 or 1<S00," 

 on the McClister farm adjoining his own, and situate in Kelly town- 

 ship, about live miles from Lewisburg. Col. Kelly stated that an 

 old Indian mimed Logan informed him of the former abundance of 

 buffaloes in this valley. In the map of its distribution, Dr. Allen 

 practically limits the range of the buffalo in the Keystone State to 

 the country drained by the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, 

 which includes the region west of the Alleghany ridge on the south, 

 and on the north, from a point in Clearfield county to the eastern 

 shore of Lake Erie, westward. The movement east of this area is 

 supposed to have been limited to the mountain passes extending 

 along the west branch of the Susquehanna, to the forks below Lewis- 

 burg. 



Prof. Baird mentions, in the Patent Office Report of„1851, the ex- 

 istence of bones of this species in Pennsylvania caves and alluvial 

 deposits. Dr. Allen took the pains to search for the reported remains 

 taken by Prof. Baird in caves near Carlisle, but was unable to find 

 them, and on inquiry the Professor wrote Dr. Allen that a re-exami- 

 nation would be necessary in order to determine whether they are of 

 the bison, and if so of which species. The uncertainty of the 

 matter justly led Dr. Allen to ignore it and make the Lewisburg 

 record stand as the most easterly authenticated one for North 

 America. In 1873 Dr. Joseph Leidy described and figured 1 the 



1 Contrib. Ext. Vert. Fauna. Washington Terr., p. 255, pi. XXVIII. 



