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V 



THE AMEEICAN EISOIS^S. 



sepai'ated localities. They have generally been found in the beds or banks 



I 



of streams^ and when found with other remains have been associated with 



extinct species belonging to the Fauna preceding the present. It is worthy 



of remark that the great deposits of bones found at the Kentucky Salt Licks, 



especially that of Big-bone Lick, have yielded thus far no remains that have 

 been identified as belonging to this gigantic representative of the ox tribe, 

 although containing the remains of Mastodon^ Flephas, Megalonyx^ and Mylodon^ 

 together with those of the fossil horse, the great extinct musk ox, the lesser 

 extinct bison, the extinct peccary, the caribou, and the moose. 



Bison antiquuB. 



1. Big-hone Lich^ Kentucky. — The original specimen on which the Bis 

 antiqitus was founded came, as is well knoAvn, from Big-bone Lick, Kentucky. 



J 



This, however, remains the sole specimen thus far known from that locality, 

 although thousands of specimens of bison remains have been examined in 



Professor N. S. Shaler 



the search for other relics of this species. In 1 

 made an extended exploration of this locality, at which time he collected 

 and sent to the Museum of Comparative Zoology a very large collection of 

 bison remains, numbering over a thousand specimens. These I have ex- 

 amined with much care, without finding any bison remains differing from the 

 remains of Bison americanus sufficiently to warrant their reference to any 



L 



other form of bison. I have found no trouble in matching the largest speci- 

 mens with the corresponding parts of large specimens of the living bison 

 from the plains of Kansas. 



As previously noticed, the tooth described by Dr. Leidy from the post- 



iocene beds of the Ashley River, South Carolina, and the bison remains 

 from Darien, Georgia, may belong either to this species or to the female of 

 Bison latifrons. 



These remains are all that have thus far been found east of 

 Mountains that can be ascribed to Bison antiqims^ and only the single original 

 specimen can be identified as such with entire certainty. 



2. EschschoUz Bay, Alaska, — Tk^ ice-cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay have fur- 

 nished an abundance of the remains of this species, two considei-able collec- 

 tions having been made by English explorers, and described by Sir John 

 Richardson in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Herald. They were found 

 in association with the remains of Elephas primigenius and Ovibos, in varying 



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