THE AMERICAN BISON 



781 



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

 hospitable 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 Range to reach the Pacific slopes; while it would ulti- 



AMERICAN BISON. 



(One-twenty-seveuth natural size.; 



mately 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 as the mountain or wood buffalo. The 

 gradual opening up of the interior of North America, with the advance of civiliza- 

 tion, soon, however, put an effectual stop to further increase of the species, and 

 eventually led to its practical extermination. 



