NO. 2021. EXTINCT BISONS OF NORTH AMERICA— HAY. 175 



Measurements of skull in American Museum Natural History. 



Distance from middle of occipital crest to fron to-nasal suture 266 



Distance between bases of horn-cores 290 



Width of constriction between orbits and bases of horn-cores 277 



Width at the rear of the orbits 325 



Distance between hinder ends of temporal fossge 170 



Width at ear-openings 300 



Height of occipital crest above lower lip of foramen magnum 150 



Height of occipital crest above upper lip of foramen magnum 110 



Letigth of horn-core on upper curve 325± 



Length of horn-core on lower curve 375± 



Diameter of base of horn-core fore and aft 115 



Diameter of base of horn-core vertically 105 



Circumference of base of horn-core 335 



Distance between tips of horn -cores (estimated) 840± 



In the Pleistocene deposits of Alaska there have been found a 

 number of specimens of this species whose horn-sheaths have been 

 preserved. The substance which composes these horn-sheaths is 

 subject to only slow decay and may, even in the climate of our north- 

 ern States, when protected from weathering influences, resist destruc- 

 tion for ages. In the cabinet of Syi'acuse University there is the skull 

 of a bison which was dug up about 1890 or previously, at a depth of 

 10 feet in a black muck, and which must have lain there many years. 

 On the horn-cores of this skull there remain yet the horn-sheaths in a 

 good state of preservation. The animal belonged to the existing 

 species. 



If in our climate the horns may endure so long, it is not astonishing 

 that they should have been preserved since even early Pleistocene 

 times in soils that have remained probably continuously frozen. 



One of these specimens on which the horns yet remain has been 

 illustrated by L. S. Quackenbush on plate 17, figs. 1, 2, numeral 2, 

 of the paper which has already been quoted. This figure is here 

 reproduced (pi. 10, fig. 3, c). The skull referred to is the one on the 

 right side. It was found at the same locality as the skull above 

 described and figured (pi. 10, figs. 1, 2, 3, a). The specimen which 

 retains the horns probably remains at Fox Gulch, which place is not 

 far from Dawson, Yukon Territory. No description of it has been 

 pubhshed. The figure shows well the size and form of the horns. 

 Were the sheaths removed the cores would probably have approxi- 

 mately the length and curvature of the specimen shown on the left 

 side of figure 3 . 



Figure 1 of plate 13 represents another partial skull retaining the 

 horns, which was seen by C. W. Gilmore, in a laundry, in Dawson, 

 Yukon. No measurements were taken. 



In the United States National Museum there is still another skuU 

 which it appears to be necessary to refer to B. occidentalis. This has 



