HISTORY OF THE BISON 
65 
a European point of view, are accustomed to associate above 
all with North America, namely, the bison, or so-called buffalo. 
The bison (Bison bison) is now almost extinct in its wild 
state, yet here in the Mackenzie region, ,a little to the south oil 
the Great Slave Lake, are still found some wild herds of this 
magnificent creature, the last remnants of the millions that 
once roamed over the continent. 
Dr. Howard* contributed many years ago an interesting 
article to “ Science ” on the manner in which insects and 
other creatures are disseminated over the States through the 
agency of man. An equally instructive paper might be written 
on the manner in which man has been the means of destroy¬ 
ing a portion of our fauna. For no one can doubt that human 
agency alone is responsible for the rapid destruction of the 
bison and other animals. 
When the Spaniards landed in America in the year 1521, 
the bison was still plentiful in Northern Mexico. In the com¬ 
mencement of the following century the English found it in 
abundance in the neighbourhood of the present site of the city 
of Washington. No doubt the range of this huge ungulate 
extended over about one-third of the entire continent of North 
America. The extreme south-eastern limit was on the coast of 
Georgia. The western boundary was in New Mexico. From 
these two southern localities to the shores of the Great Slave 
Lake in Canada, vast herds of bison were known to exist even 
in the early parts of the last century. According to Dr. 
Hornaday’s f graphic description, they lived and moved, as no 
other quadrupeds ever had, in great multitudes, like grand 
armies in review, covering scores of square miles at once. 
They were so numerous that boats were sometimes stopped 
by them in the rivers, and they threatened to overwhelm 
travellers on the plains. In later years they occasionally 
derailed locomotives and cars. One herd, seen by Colonel 
Dodge in 1871, only forty years ago, and described by him, 
extended for a distance of twenty-five miles and must have 
included a million individuals. The Indians believed that 
these buffaloes issued from the earth continuously, the 
* Howard, L. O., “ The Spread of Species by the Agency of Man.” 
t Hornaday, W. T., “ Extermination of American Bison.” 
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