CHAPTER I." 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



1. FOSSIL REMAINS OF THE AMERICAN BUFFALO, BISON AMERICANUS. 



REMAINS of the American Buffalo are frequently discovered within the circuit 

 of its former habitation east of the Mississippi, more especially at that remarkable 

 cemetery 8f mammalia, Big-bone Lick, Kentucky. Mr. Lyell, in the description of 

 a recent visit to this locality, 1 remarks that, within the memory of persons now 

 living, the Buffaloes crowded to the springs of Big-bone Lick ; but they have 

 retreated for many years, and are now as little known to the inhabitants as the 

 Mastodon itself. In reference to the same place, he observes he saw remains of the 

 Buffalo in great number in a superficial stratum cut open in the bank of the river. 2 



In the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences there is a collection of 

 bones from Big-bone Lick, which I do not hesitate to attribute to the Buffalo ; 

 although, from no recent skeleton, excepting crania, of this animal being accessible 

 for comparison, I cannot positively ascertain their identity. 



The specimens are as follow : 



1. Fragment of the left side of the lower jaw, containing the last molar tooth. 



2. Fragment of the left side of the lower jaw containing four teeth, from an old 

 individual. 



3. The occipi to-parietal and temporal bones of a young individual. 



These three specimens were presented to the Academy by Dr. Richard Harlan. 



4. Two superior molar teeth; presented by Thomas Fisher, Esq. 



Besides the foregoing, there are numerous bones from Big-bone Lick, presented by 

 Thomas Jefferson to the American Philosophical Society, and, now on deposit in 

 the museum of the Academy. The specimens are dark-brown or black in color, 

 with a lustrous surface, and are dense and unaltered in their texture. The interior 

 of the long bones is filled with a hard, dry, pulverulent, chalk-like 



They are as follow : - lj*rf c 



1. A dorsal and a lumbar vertebra, and a sacrum of five pieces belonging to an 

 individual not quite adult. They are about the size of those of the Domestic Ox. 

 The epiphyses are separated from the bodies of the two vertebrae and lost. The 

 pieces of the sacrum are firmly anchylosed together, but the first piece has lost its 

 anterior epiphysis. 



1 Travels in North America (1845), vol. ii. p. 55. Ibid. p. 56. 



