4 INTRODUCTION. III. 



species; and it really appears as if circumstances had always been absent upon the 

 former continent, which have been at least coincident with the primitive origin of 

 the ox tribe in other countries. 



Of Australia, we know too little to say positively no species of the ox tribe has 

 ever existed there ab origine; and it would probably even be unsafe to infer from a 

 view of its recent fauna that there did not. 



The two recent species of ox of North America are the Bison Americamis, Gray, 

 and the Ovibos mosdiatus, Blainville. 



When North America was first colonized by Europeans, the Bison Americans, 

 or Buffalo, ranged over nearly the whole continent ; but it has gradually retired 

 westward in advance of the migrating column of the white race of man, until it 

 has entirely disappeared west of the Mississippi. To find it now, in large numbers, 

 it is necessary to travel far west of the latter, even to the foot of the Rocky 

 Mountains; and the day is not far distant when it will become quite extinct, unless 

 protected by a munificent republic, as has been done by the Emperor of Russia in 

 the case of the Aurochs, or European Bison, now kept in great herds in certain 

 forests of Lithuania. 



The Ovibos moschatus, or Musk Ox, is rarely seen by travellers and naturalists, 

 being confined to that part of America west of Hudson's Bay, and north of 65 of 

 latitude, to which climate it is peculiarly adapted by its thick long fleece. 



A fine specimen of this animal, preserved in the British Museum, we are informed 

 is the only one contained in any collection of Europe or this country. 



