BISON. 



491 



of nearly the same dimensions as those of which a 

 living remnant is yet left, in places where no live one 

 has been found within the limits of historic record, 

 there are embedded at still greater depths bones of 

 bisons of much larger and even gigantic size. These, 

 from the situations in which they are found, do not, 

 as is the case with the more ancient races, which 

 show greater structural differences from those which 

 exist at the present time, give any evidence of having 

 perished by any disturbance of the strata anything 

 that can be considered as geologic revolution, but in 

 consequence of the ordinary surface changes, which 

 take place in the common course of time by the com- 

 mon action of the weather. Thus they tend further 

 to prove (if further proof were necessary) that those 

 animals which are in their own nature the most 

 powerful and stubborn, are the first to yield to those 

 general agencies which, in a placid though constant 

 and successful manner, alter the state of things on 

 the surface of the globe. 



Those gigantic bones must have been more com- 

 mon nearer the surface, and therefore more familiar 

 to common observation, in times long gone by, than 

 they are now ; and it is not improbable that in them 

 we have types of those fabled men of giant dimen- 

 sions, of which there are traditions in most countries. 

 In those times the structures of organised bodies 

 were but very imperfectly known, and it is no very 

 great stretch of fancy to suppose that these giants, to 

 whom was given the credit of erecting some of those 

 ponderous structures which have no real history, and 

 which have something the appearance of works oi 

 human art, whether they are so in reality or not, 

 were fabricated out of the bones of these lost animals. 

 Our proper business is, however, with the living 

 species rather than with the fossil remains, and there- 

 fore we proceed to notice those bisons which are stil, 

 to be met with, though the rapidity with which their 

 numbers are obviously diminishing, renders the allusioi 

 to them as a race in progress towards extinction, a 

 very rational part of their prospective history. 



The characters of the bisons, which appear chiefly 

 in the head are : the forehead arched or convex 

 instead of being nearly flat, as in the domestic ox 

 the breadth, measured between the orbits of the eyes 

 greater than the height; the bases of the horns before 

 the ridge of the occiput ; the whole outlines of the 

 cranial bones more curved or convex ; and the occipu 

 being rounded instead of quadrangular, and passing 

 into the line of the forehead by an obtuse and rounde 

 angle, instead of an acute one. This form gives 

 much greater strength to the skull, and more firmness 

 to the bases of the horns ; so that the bison can dash 

 the head with much more impetus than the ox can 

 either against an enemy or against an obstacle, with 

 out the danger of equal injury either from fracture o 

 the skull or concussion of its contents. 



'Hie legs of bisons are also longer, more clean in 

 the make, and altogether better fitted for fleet mo- 

 tion than those of the common oxen, or any othe 

 division of the genus. The body is also more com 

 pact, and the strength more concentrated upon the 

 fore part, so that in its attacks the animal advance 

 with a powerful spring, and delivers the whole impe 

 tus of its body upon the horn, much in the same waj 

 tnat a lion does upon the paws ; and if the rush o 

 the bison takes effect, it is more immediately fata 

 than the spring even of the lion. 



The produced hair on the neck and head gives i 



ilso more of a lion-like appearance, than one who 

 ad been accustomed only to the sober bearing and 

 lacid manners of common oxen in a meadow would 

 je prepared to meet with in any animal of the same 

 genus. This mane or shaggy hair on the sides of 

 he neck, on the part of the head, and forming a sort 

 )f beard on the chin, appears chiefly on the males, 

 as is the case with the lion -, but there are upon both 

 exes two sets of hairy covering, which indicate their 

 capability of resisting the rains and snows which 

 occur in the northern parts. The one of those sets 

 of covering Is woolly and soft, partaking in some 

 measure of the nature of fur, arid calculated for 

 protecting the animal against the cold ; the other has 

 he hairs individually thicker, straighter, and of more 

 n flexible consistency, so that they are better adapted 

 'or throwing off the rain and snow. 



One other remarkable difference of appearance 

 between these animals and ordinary oxen, and indeed 

 the greater part of the tribe, is, that the abdomen is 

 much smaller and more firm and compact, and the 

 whole of the hinder parts cleaner and lighter in their 

 formation. The compactness of the abdomen is, in 

 part, owing to an additional rib on each side : this 

 group having in all fourteen pairs of ribs, while the 

 other species of the genus have only thirteen pairs. 

 Even the tongue of the bison is different ; it is blue, 

 while the tongue of the common ox is flesh coloured. 

 The tail is not very lung, but the brush of hair upon 

 it is very full. Though the hair on the anterior part 

 of the male is more forward, and resembles the thane 

 of a lion much more than that of any other of the 

 genus, the hair on the hinder part is comparatively 

 short, especially in summer after the old coat is cast, 

 but it gets more shaggy, and also fades in colour 

 during the winter. One other remarkable charac- 

 teristic of the animal is the thickness of the hide, 

 which is more than double that of any other rumi- 

 nant animal of the same dimensions. These animals 

 are very indiscriminate in their attacks, and evince 

 as much hostility to the other species of their own 

 genus, which are incapable of doing any harm, as 

 they do to the carnivorous or mammalia. 



There still exist two northern species of those very 

 powerful, and on account of their daring energy, very 

 interesting animals, one in the northern part of the 

 eastern continent, and the other in America. 



THE COMMON B.!-ON (Bos Bison). Is a forest 

 animal, better able, from the texture of its covering, 

 especially that of the anterior part of the body, to 

 endure cold than heat. In ancient times it appears 

 to have been very plentiful in what was then con- 

 sidered as northern, but which is now central Europe. 

 At that period the whole line of country from the 

 Rhine, indeed from the shores of the British seas, 

 along tiie north side of the Alps, and all the way to 

 the confluence of the Don with the Black Sea, and 

 probably in continuation to the centre of Asia, appear 

 to have been one vast forest, consisting of" an admix- 

 ture of the pine family with deciduous trees, according 

 to the different qualities of the soil. It appears to 

 have been a forest bearing no inconsiderable resem- 

 blance to those which covered great part of North 

 America, when that country was first made known 

 to the Europeans ; ami of which the remains are still 

 met with in the unsettled places. This forest, as is 

 the case with that of America, was a great source of 

 cold, in consequence of the evaporation caused by 

 the surfaces of so many leaves, and the shade of the 



