CHAPTEK I. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



§ 1. Fossn. Rehaixs of the Axericas" Bcttalo, Bisox Americaxcs. 



EEVArys of the American Bufialo are frequently discovered within the circuit 

 of its former habitation east of the 3Iississippi, more especially at that remarkable 

 cemetery of mammalia. Big-bone Lick, Kentucky. Mr. Lyell, in the description of 

 ' a recent visit to this locality ,'^ remarks that, -n-ithin. the memory of persons now 

 living, the Buffaloes crowded to the springs of Big-bone Lick : but they have 

 retreated for many years, and are now as little known to the inhabitants as the 

 Mastodon itself. Li reference to the same place, he observes he saw remains of the 

 Buffalo in great number in a superficial stratum cut open in the bank of the river.' 



In the Museum of the Academy of Xatural Sciences there is a collection of 

 bones from Big-bone Lick, which I do not hesitate to attribute to the Buffxlo; 

 although, from no recent skeleton, excepting crania, of this animal being accessible 

 for comparison, I cannot positively ascertain their identity. 



The specimens are as follow : — 



1. Fragment of the left side of the lower jaw, containing the last molar tooth. 



2. Fragment of the left side of the lower jaw containing four teeth, from an old 

 individual. 



3. The occipito-parietal and temporal bones of a young individual. 



These three specimens were presented to the Academy by Dr. Richard Harlan. 



4. Two superior molar teeth; presented by Thomas Fisher, Esq. 



Besides the foregoiug, there are numerous bones from Big-bone Lick, presented by 

 Thomas Jefferson to the American Philosophical Society, and now on deposit in 

 the museum of the Academy. The specimens are dark-brown or black in color, 

 with a lustrous surface, and are dense and unaltered in their texture. The interior 

 of the long bones is filled with a hard, dry, pulverulent, chalk-like adipocire. 



They are as follow : — 



1. A dorsal and a lumbar vertebra, and a sacnun of five pieces belonging to an 

 individual not quite adult. They are about the size of those of the Domestic Ox. 

 The epiphyses are separated from the bodies of the two vertebra? and lost. The 

 pieces of the sacrum are firmly anchylosed together, but the first piece has lost its 

 anterior epiphysis. 



' Travels in Xorth America (1845), vol. ii. p. 55- " D^'d. p. 56. 



