THE AMERICAN BISON 33 



to preserve the species, with very good effect. But when 

 there was a revolution in the country numbers of refugees 

 fled to the forests, and they did not scruple to hunt the 

 preserved animals for food. Thirty years ago it was 

 calculated that not more than six hundred Bisons survived, 

 and they have gradually decreased, and the time is not far 

 distant when the European Bison will be added to the list 

 of extinct animals. 



AMERICAN BISON (Bos americanus). 

 Plate XXVIII. Fig. i. 



The American Bison, more often than not incorrectly 

 called the Buffalo, is a bulkier animal than the European 

 species, from which it differs chiefly in the possession of 

 a still larger head and a clothing of longer and shaggier 

 hair. A bull will often measure 5 feet 8 inches at the 

 withers, but though the average is below this, the species 

 will weigh anything from fifteen hundred to nearly two 

 thousand pounds. 



Owing to its shagginess the Bison appears to be of 

 greater size than in reality is the case ; but ' the magnificent 

 dark-brown frontlet and beard, the shaggy coat of hair upon 

 the neck, hump, and shoulders, terminating at the knees in 

 a thick mass of luxuriant black locks, to say nothing of the 

 dense coat of finer fur on the body and hindquarters, give 

 to the species not only an apparent height equal to that of 

 the Gaur, but a grandeur and nobility of presence which 

 are beyond all comparison among ruminants/ These are 

 the words of Mr. Hornaday, than whom no one is better 

 qualified to speak of the animal. 



A melancholy interest is attached to this member of the 

 Ox family, which formerly ranged over the prairies of North 

 America from the Arctic Circle to Mexico. Well within 

 the memory of living man the Bison blackened the prairies 

 with its countless herds. It was to the red man what the 

 walrus still is to the Eskimo. The flesh afforded abundant 

 food for himself and his wife and children ; its skins fur- 

 nished him with coverings for his wigwams, or tent-houses ; 



