300 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



Lewis and Clarke inform us, or darkening the plains 

 on their passage to fresh feeding-grounds. 



Salt springs, or saline morasses, or salt-licks, are 

 great attractions to this animal, and at all seasons are 

 visited by numerous herds. These, however, are 

 incessantly thinned by the hunters, and the time is 

 not probably far distant when the American Bison 

 will be as rare and as limited in its extent of range as 

 the aurochs of Lithuania. 



At certain seasons of the year the bulls engage in 

 terrible conflicts, and rush furiously upon man, or any 

 other animal which ventures near them. With the 

 exception of man, the most formidable enemy against 

 which the Bison has to contend is the huge grisly bear, 

 and before this dreaded monster the strongest bull 

 goes down. 



It appears that the Bison will breed with the ordi- 

 nary race of domestic cattle, against which the aurochs 

 displays the greatest antipathy, though in one respect 

 the latter approaches nearer to the common ox than 

 does the Bison ; we allude to the number of ribs, which 

 are thirteen in the ox on each side, fourteen in the 

 aurochs, and fifteen in the Bison. 



The Sea Otter (Lutra Marina)^ so renowned for its 

 valuable fur, is found on the coast, and the Land 

 Otter [Lutra Brasiliensis) in the rivers. 



The Sea-Otter is a native of the north-west coast of 

 America, from California to latitude 60°, and of the 

 opposite coast of Asia, from the Yellow Sea to the 

 north of Kamtchatka and the intermediate islands. 

 Its fur, which is of a black color, sometimes chestnut- 

 brown, and occasionally even yellow, is soft, full, and 

 beautiful, and is an object of commerce, being pro- 



