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THE AMEEICAN BISONS. 



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Megahnyx, and Mylodon 



metatarsus, found in excavating the Brunswick Canal, in Georgia. A frag- 



ment of a jaw, with the teeth very much worn, belonging to the same col- 

 lection, was subsequently identified as belonging to an extinct bison, though 

 in the mean time wrongly referred by Harlan and Owen to other genera. 

 In 1852 Dr. Leidy * also described the greater part of a right horn-core, hav- 

 ino- a small frao-ment of the frontal bone attached, found at Big-bone Lick, 

 Kentucky, which he " with some hesitation " described as belonging to a new 

 species {Bison antiqims Leidy), but which he later regarded as the female of 



the larger form {Bison latif) 



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In 1854 the fossil bison remains from the ice-cliflfs of Eschscholtz Bay col- 

 lected by Captain Beechey, together with others collected later by Captain 

 Kellet, were described by Sir John Richardson,^ who believed them to repre- 

 sent two species. One of these he regarded as new {Bison crassicornis Eich- 

 ardson), while he regarded the other as doubtfully identical with the fossil 

 bison of Europe {Bison priscits auct.}. Altogether the fossil bison remains 

 from this locality included portions of several skulls, several additional horn- 



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cores, most of the bones of the limbs, and the greater part of the vertebrD3. 

 None of the skulls, however, embraced the facial portions of the cranium. 



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In 1860 Dr. Leidy $ described and figured a second premolar tooth from 

 the post-pHocene^ formation of the Ashley Eiver, South Carolina, which he 



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In 1867 the same writer S described 



a skull from Pilarcitos Valley, California, and also several teeth from the 

 same State, which he redescribed and figured in 1873. || He also described 

 and fi^mred at the same time a molar tooth found at Pittston, on the Sus- 

 quehanna Eiver, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and another molar from 

 a crevice in the lead-bearing rocks of Jo Daviess County, Ilhnois, both of 

 which he also referred, though somewhat doubtfully, to the same species. 



It thus appears that the hitherto described remains of extinct bisons 

 knoAvn from the United States consist of three or four very imperfect 

 skulls, (none of them embracing the very characteristic facial portions, 

 atlas, a tibia and humerus and a few detached molar teeth. The remains 



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* Proc. Acad. Nat. ScL Pliila., 1852, 117. 



f Zoology of the Voyage of the Herald. 



t Holmes's Post-Pliocene Fossils of South Carolina, p. 109, pL xxii. figs. 15, IG, 1860. 



§ Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1867, p. 85. 



li Contrib. to Extinct Vert. Faun. Western Territories, pp. 253, 318, pL xxviii, figs. 4-8. 



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