VI. 



THE BUFFALO AND HIS 



PERHAPS no indigenous animal of this country has at- 

 tracted more attention or met with a greater number of 

 biographers than the bison or buffalo. Its history has 

 been a tale of extermination, and a very short time will be 

 likely to see the last of these noble beasts roaming over 

 the plains. For hundreds of years a small remnant of the 

 ancient herds of aurochs, the native European bison, have 

 been preserved in the parks of the nobility ; but in this 

 "free" country not even this means of safety seems left 

 to our persecuted buffalo. 



To the Spanish colonists the American bison was com- 

 monly known under the name of civola, while the French 

 usually called it le bceuf, huffle, vache sauvage, or bison 



* A review of Prof. J. A. Allen's " The Bison, Past and Present, in this Coun- 

 try," forming Part II. of Volume I. of the " Memoirs of the Geological Survey 

 of Kentucky," Prof. N. S. Shaler, Geologist, in charge ; also reprinted by the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology as one of its " Memoirs." Cambridge, 1875. 



