OXEN. 



'93 



North-Eastern Mexico, westward across the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico, 

 Utah, and Idaho, and northward across a vast treeless waste to the bleak and 

 inhospitable shores of the Great Slave Lake itself." Its maximum development 

 was probably reached about a century and a half ago, when the greater part of 

 North America was practically an unknown country so far as Europeans are 

 concerned. And Mr. Hornaday is of opinion that, if left to itself, the bison would 

 have crossed the Sierra Nevada and coast-ranges to reach the Pacific slopes ; while 

 it would ultimately have developed into several distinct races according to the 

 climate of the different regions it inhabited. An example of the formation of 

 such a race is afforded, indeed, by the variety known in the States as the mountain, 

 or wood, buffalo. The gradual opening up of the interior of North America, 

 with the advance of civilisation, soon, however, put an effectual stop to further 

 increase of the species, and eventually led to its practical extermination. 

 Numbers and In regard to its former numerical abundance, Mr. Hornaday 1 



Extermination. ODse rves that " of all the quadrupeds that have ever lived upon the 

 earth, probably no other species has ever marshalled such innumerable hosts as 

 those of the American bison. It would have been as easy to count or to estimate 

 the number of leaves in a forest as to calculate the number of bison living at any 

 given time during the history of the species previous to 1870. Even in South 

 Central Africa, which has been exceedingly prolific in great herds of game, it is 

 probable that all its quadrupeds taken together on an equal area would never have 

 more than equalled the total number of buffalo in this country forty years ago." 

 As an instance of these enormous numbers, it appears that, in the early part of 

 the year 1871, Col. Dodge, when passing through the great herd on the Arkansas, 

 and reckoning that there were some fifteen or twenty individuals to the acre, states 

 from his own observation that it was not less than twenty-five miles wide and fifty 

 miles deep. This, however, was the last of the great herds ; and Mr. Hornaday 

 estimates that the number of individuals comprising it could not be reckoned at 

 less than four millions. Many writers at and about the date mentioned speak of 

 the plains being absolutely black with bison as far as the eye could reach ; and Mr. 

 W. Blackmore tells of passing through a herd for a distance of upwards of one 

 hundred and twenty miles right on end, in travelling on the Kansas Pacific Rail- 

 road. Frequently, indeed, trains on that line were derailed in attempting to pass 

 through herds of bison, until the drivers learned it was advisable to bring their 

 engines to a standstill when they found the line blocked in this manner. 



Col. Dodge, writing of his experiences on the Arkansas alluded to above, 

 observes that " the whole country appeared one great mass of bison, moving slowly 

 to the northward ; and it was only when actually among them that it could be 

 ascertained that the apparently solid mass was an agglomeration of numerous small 

 herds, of from fifty to two hundred animals, separated from the surrounding herds 

 by greater or less space, but still separated. The bison on the hills, seeing an 

 unusual object in their rear, started at full speed directly towards me, stamped- 

 ing and bringing with them the numberless herds through which they passed, 

 and pouring down upon all the herds, no longer separated, but one immense 

 compact mass of plunging animals." 



1 When quoting from Mr. Hornaday and other writers we have substituted the word bison for buffalo. 

 VOL. II. — 13 



