G40 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



ranged over the whole United States, from the Atlantic to the Rocky 

 Mountains ; but as the white man spread west, the herds disappeared 

 before them, until now there are none east of the Mississippi, and only 

 two wild herds west of that river, — one in the Yellowstone Park, the 

 other in British America. None of our animals have been subjected 



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Pio. 605. — American buffalo (Bison americanus). 



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to Midi persecution as this. Buffalo robes were demanded by the east, 

 and the prices they brought led to an enormous slaughter, the body. 

 merely divested of its hide, being left to decay on the prairies. Then, 

 too, sportsmen killed them for mere sport, and Indians, for food. The 

 result is that now these animals, which once ranged over so wide a ter- 

 ritory, are now all but extinct. 



The buffaloes are gregarious animals, going in small herds, and these 



