214 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



Photo b) IV. P. Dando] [Regent'i Park 



DOMESTICATED YAK 



The -wild bo-vine animal of the Central Asian plateau, tamed and domesticated 



on the prairies, and its meat formed 

 the staple food of the Red Indians, 

 who lived on the flesh and used the 

 " robes " of those killed in winter 

 for great coats and bedding. When 

 Audubon went up the Upper Missouri, 

 bison were in sight almost through- 

 out the voyage ; they were even 

 carried down on ice-flows on the river. 

 The bulls were very large, and were 

 occasionally savage, especially when 

 attacked and wounded ; but usually 

 they were harmless animals. Every 

 winter and spring they made migra- 

 tions along regular routes to fresh 

 pastures. These lines of travel were 

 then black with bison. The females 

 had their calves by their sides, and 

 all travelled in herds, feeding as 

 they went. At the present time the 

 only remains of the bison are the 

 paths they left on the prairies, and 

 their bones and skulls. The paths 

 are still distinctly seen, worn by the 

 " treks " of the great beasts which 

 have now perished. The bones were collected in stacks and sold to make manure. 



A President Roosevelt, in an article contributed to " The Encylopaedia of Sport," thus describes 

 the destruction of the bison : " Pursuit by sportsmen had nothing to do with the extermination 

 of the bison. It was killed by the hide-hunters, redskin, white, and half-breed. The railways, 

 as they were built, hastened its destruction, for they gave means of transporting the heavy 

 robes to market. But it would have been killed out anyhow, even were there no railroads in 

 existence. Once the demand for the robes became known to the Indians, they were certain to 

 exterminate it. Originally the bison ranged from the Rocky Mountains to the Alleghanies, and 

 from Mexico to the Peace River. But its centre of abundance was the vast extent of grass land 

 stretching from the Saskatchewan to the Rio Grande. All the earlier explorers who crossed 

 these great plains, from Lewis and Clarke onwards, spoke of the astonishing multitudes of the 

 bison, which formed the sole food of the Horse Indians. The herds were pressed steadily back, 

 but the slaughter did not begin till after the Civil War; then the commercial value of the 

 robes became fully recognised, and the transcontinental railways rendered the herds more 

 accessible. The slaughter was almost incredible, for the bison were slain literally by millions 

 every year. They were first exterminated in Canada and the southern plains. It was not till 

 1883 that the last herd was killed off from the great north-western prairies." 



The height of a fine bull American bison at the shoulder is 6 feet. The horns are 

 short, blunt, and curved, and set farther back on the forehead than in the European species. 

 The hindquarters are low and weak, and the mane develops in winter into a thick robe, 

 covering the neck, shoulders, and chest. An adult bull bison was found to weigh 1,727 Ibs. 

 The woodland bison of Athabasca, now nearly exterminated, are larger than the prairie-bison, 

 and have finer coats. In 1897 there were said to be between 280 and 300 head remaining 

 in two herds. 



THE BUFFALOES 



THE BUFFALOES are so far distinct from other wild cattle that they will not interbreed 

 with them ; yet one species, the INDIAN BUFFALO, has been domesticated for a long, though 



