THE AMERICAN BISONS. 3 
As compared with the species of Bos proper, the bisons also differ in their 
more slender limbs, smaller ribs, and less massive bones, as well as in 
their much longer dorsal spines, and relatively longer canon-bones of the 
hind limbs as compared with those of the fore limbs. Externally they differ 
in having the head heavily clothed with long bushy hair; they also possess 
a heavy barb, and the fore legs are heavily fringed with coarse long hair. 
The clothing hair of the body also differs from that of the representatives 
of the restricted genus Bos and most of its allies in consisting mainly of 
short, curled, crisp wool in place of straight hairs. On the whole the bisons 
proper, or the restricted genus Bison, form a strongly marked natural group, 
the different members of which exhibit a close interrelation. Their nearest 
ally is probably the yac (Poéphagus grunniens), which was considered by 
Turner as congeneric with the bisons, though by others as more allied to 
the musk ox. The other nearest allies of the bisons are the gaurs (Bibos 
gaurus and Bibos frontalis), but none of these forms very closely approach 
the bisons. 
The name Bison was first applied to this group in a generic sense by Ham- 
ilton Smith in 1827. In the same year Bojanus used the name Urus for the 
designation of the aurochs and the larger extinct bisons. Prof Owen in 
1843 also used the name Urus in a generic sense for the designation of this 
group. The name Harlanus, given to a supposed new tapiroid pachyderm, 
was based on what proved on later investigation to be an imperfect ramus 
of an extinct bison, the teeth of which had become so much worn as to ob- 
scure their true character. Ritimeyer has recently used the name Besontina 
in a super-generic sense for the same group. 
2. GENERAL HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE REMAINS OF EXTINCT 
BISONS HITHERTO FOUND IN NortH AMERICA. 
As introductory to the following pages, a brief historical notice of the 
hitherto known remains of extinct North American bisons may not be 
wholly out of place. 
The first remains of an extinct bison discovered in North America * were 
* The first-discovered remains of a fossil bison seem to have been the skull obtained near Dantzic, and 
described by Klein in 1732 Gn Philosoph. Transact., XXXVI, No. 426, figs. 1-3). In 1803 Faujas, and 
later Brocchi and Cuvier described others from Northern Italy and the valley of the Rhine, and numerous 
