NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 339 



individuals the long wooly hair over the shoulders bleaches to 

 a light yellowish-brown . . . The chin and throat are also 

 covered with long hair, which under the chin forms an immense 

 beard, eight or ten inches to a foot or more in length. Thick 

 masses of long hair also arise from the inner and posterior 

 surfaces of the fore legs, where the hair often attains a length 

 of six or eight inches. A strip of long hair also extends along 

 the crest of the back nearly to the tail. The tail is covered 

 with only short soft hair till near the tip, from which arises a 

 tuft of coarse long hair twelve to eighteen inches in length" 

 (J. A. Allen, 1876a). Rarely, black or melanistic individuals 

 occur, and still more rarely an albino. Many cranial measure- 

 ments are tabulated in the monograph of J. A. Allen (1876a, 

 1876b). 



Much has been written on the history, distribution, decima- 

 tion, and reestablishment of this species. In the eastern part 

 of North America the bison (" pennsylvanicus") occurred as 

 far east as the western parts of New York State, but in inter- 

 glacial times it probably extended to New England, as proved 

 by the discovery of a piece of the maxilla with characteristic 

 milk premolars found in glacia*! till on Cape Cod (G. M. Allen, 

 1920). From western New York southward small herds were 

 found in former times in the mountains of Pennsylvania, 

 West Virginia, and Tennessee, into the upper parts of North 

 and South Carolina, following the valleys of the New, Holston, 

 and French Broad Rivers. Probably the extreme southeastern 

 limit was in Georgia, where in the southeastern part is a creek 

 still known as Buffalo Creek. There seems to be no certainty, 

 however, that it was found in the present limits of the State of 

 Florida, although its occasional presence there in former 

 times is not unlikely. It is believed that the eastward extension 

 of the bison's range was taking place at the time of the dis- 

 covery, aided in part by the clearing of forests by the Indians 

 and in part by the attraction of salt licks as in the mountains 

 of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. To the northward the 

 animals reached the shores of Lake Erie in their annual mi- 

 grations and thence ranged westward to Lake Winnipeg and 

 in increasing numbers over the Great Plains, to the edge of 

 the Great Basin, and north of that to the extreme northeastern 

 part of California and southeastern Oregon. The bison of the 

 latter State has recently been described as a distinct race 

 (see below). 



