346 The American Buffalo. 



18. Astarte Laurerdiana. 



19. Cardium Groenlandicum. 



20. Cardium Islandicum, 



21. Nucula sapolilia ? 



22. Mj/tUus edulls. 



23. Pecten Island icus. 



24. RhynconeUa psittacea. 



25. Balanus miser. 



26. Balanus Uddevalensis. 



27. Echinus granulatus. 



In addition to the above id tlie nodules of indurated clay con- 

 taining other fossils, there are found tlie leaves and twigs of trees, 

 grass and weeds, shewing that land covered with vegetation 

 existed at no great distance. These fossils, as a group, are suppos- 

 ed to belong more to an Arctic than a temperate climate, and in 

 consequence, indicate a greater degree of cold during the latter 

 part of the Tertiary than exists at present in Canada. 



ARTICLE XLVIIL— O/i the American Buffalo, {Bison Amer- 

 icanus.) 



GENUS BISOK 



Dental Formula. 

 Incisive g ; Canine g — g ; Molar ^ — | = 32. 



According to Mr. Vassey, a writer upon the Ox Tribe, the 

 Buffalo differs somewhat from the common ox {Bos tanrtis) in 

 its anatomical structure, having only twelve joints in its tail, while 

 the ox has twenty-one. In that division also of the back bone 

 which contains what anatomists call the dorsal vertebrae, there 

 are fourteen joints in the Buffalo and thirteen in the ox. And 

 lastly the Buffalo has only five sacral vertebras, while the ox has 

 six ; thus although the whole number of joints in the back bone 

 excluding the tail, is the same, yet their anatomical characters and 

 distribution are somewhat different. A difference in the number 

 of caudal vertebrae would not constitute a generic' distinction, 

 unless there were other points of variance. Adubon and Bach- 

 man's account of the genus is as follows : — 



" Head, large and broad ; forehead, slighty arched ; horns, 

 placed before the salient line of the frontal crest; tail, short; 

 fihoulders, elevated ; hair, soft and woolly." 



