ARTIODACTYLA 327 



Romans, insisted upon humane treatment of cattle, particularly of 

 oxen. 12 



The former abundance and subsequent almost complete extermina- 

 tion of the American bison, or American buffalo, as a wild animal, has 

 been discussed at some length in a former chapter. It has been esti- 

 mated that before railroads on the western plains provided cheap and 

 easy transportation for the heavy bison skins, 1860-1870, there were 

 from 5,000,000 to 60,000,000 bisons on the western plains. 13 Prob- 

 ably the former estimate is too small and the latter too large. An 

 estimate placing the total at from 30,000,000 to 60,000,000 was based 

 partly-.upon the great quantity of bones shipped to market, but all of 

 the bisons whose bones were shipped did not live at the same time. In 

 Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, according to estimates, $2,500,000 

 were paid for bones at $8 a ton, each ton estimated to represent 100 

 bison. Hewitt has published an interesting photograph of an immense 

 pile of bones and skulls representing over 25,000 bisons, awaiting ship- 

 ment from Canada to the United States, to be used in the manufacture 

 of charcoal. 14 He quotes Catlin to the effect that in about 1832 

 150,000 to 260,000 bison robes were marketed annually, before the 

 great slaughter began. 



In the single year of 1848, 25,000 bison tongues and large quanti- 

 ties of bison fat were sent down the river to St. Louis. 15 In 1840, west 

 of Fargo, North Dakota, 1375 bison tongues were obtained on the 

 first day of the hunt and 2000 bisons estimated to have been killed 

 by the 400 mounted hunters. In 1882, 600 Indian hunters killed 5000 

 in two days. In 1881, 75,000 skins were shipped from Bismarck, but 

 they were mostly obtained in Montana. 16 The Atchison, Topeka and 



12 Sanders, The taurine world : Cattle and their place in the human scheme wild 

 types and modern breeds in many lands, Natl. Geog. Mag., XLVIII, 591-710, 1925, 

 especially pp. 610-614. 



*Natl. Geog. Mag., xxx, 389, 1916. Stone and Cram, American animals, p. 68, 

 1902. Ball's Life of Baird, p. 333. McAllister, California's large game animals, 

 California Fish and Game, ix, 11-15, 1923; Canada leads in buffalo conservation, 

 California Fish and Game, xrv, 155-156, 1928. Palmer, Chronology and index of the 

 more important events in American game protection, 1776-1911, U. S. Biol. Surv. 

 Bull. No. 41, 1912. Hornaday, The extermination of the American bison, with a 

 sketch of its discovery and life history, Ann. Rept. U. S. Natl. Museum for 1887, 

 pp. 367-548. Allen, History of the American bison, Bison americanus, Qth Ann. Rept. 

 Hoyden's U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr, (for 1875), pp. 443-587; reprinted with 

 amended title from Mem. Geol. Surv. Kentucky, i, Part 2, 1876, and Mem. Museum 

 Comp. Zool. (Harvard), rv, No. 10, 1876. Seton, Lives of game animals, in, Part 2, 

 p. 656, 1929. 



"Hewitt, The conservation of the wild life of Canada, pp. 113-142, 1921. 



15 Chittenden, History of the American fur trade, n, 817, 1902. 



18 Bailey, A biological survey of North Dakota, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, pp. 22- 

 25, 1926. 



