HISTORY OF THE BISON 65 



a European point of view, are accustomed to associate above 

 all with North America, namely, the bison, or so-called buffalo. 



The bison (Bison bison) is now almost extinct in its wild 

 state, yet here in the Mackenzie region, ,a little to the south of! 

 the Great Slave Lake, are still found some wild herds of this 

 magnificent creature, the last remnants of the millions that 

 once roamed over the continent. 



Dr. Howard* contributed many years ago an interesting 

 article to " Science " on the manner in which insects and 

 other creatures are disseminated over the States through the 

 agency of man. An equally instructive paper might be written 

 on the manner in which man has been the means of destroy- 

 ing a portion of our fauna. For no one can doubt that human 

 agency alone is responsible for the rapid destruction of the 

 bison and other animals. 



When the Spaniards landed in America in the year 1521, 

 the bison was still plentiful in Northern Mexico. In the com- 

 mencement of the following century the English found it in 

 abundance in the neighbourhood of the present site of the city 

 of Washington. No doubt the range of this huge ungulate 

 extended over about one-third of the entire continent of North 

 America. The extreme south-eastern limit was on "the coast of 

 Georgia. The western boundary was in New Mexico. From 

 these two southern localities to the shores of the Great Slave 

 Lake in Canada, vast herds of bison were known to exist even 

 in. the early parts of the last century. According to Dr. 

 Hornaday's f graphic description, they lived and moved, as no 

 other quadrupeds ever had, in great multitudes, like grand 

 armies in review, covering scores of square miles at once. 

 They were so numerous that boats were sometimes stopped 

 by them in the rivers, and they threatened to overwhelm 

 travellers on the plains. In later years they occasionally 

 derailed locomotives and cars. One herd, seen by Colonel 

 Dodge in 1871, only forty years ago, and described by him, 

 extended for a distance of twenty-five miles and must have; 

 included a million individuals. The Indians believed that 

 these buffaloes issued from the earth continuously, the 



* Howard, L. O., " The Spread of Species by the Agency of Man." 

 t Hornaday, W. T., " Extermination of American Bison." 



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