194 UONGULATES. 
Many similar accounts attesting the vast swarms of bison which formerly 
roamed the prairies might be quoted, but the foregoing are sufficient for our purpose. 
Evidence of the numbers of these animals is still to be seen in the huge stacks of 
skulls piled up at many of the railway stations in the States awaiting transport. 
The main cause which led to the extirpation of the bison was the advance of 
railways. With the progress of civilisation the bison was, indeed, foredoomed to 

HEAD OF AMERICAN BISON, 
disappear; but its end was hastened by the reckless way in which the unfortunate 
animals were shot for the sake of their hides or tongues; by the want of protective 
legislation on the part of the Government; by the preference for the flesh and 
skin of cows, by the marvellous stupidity and indifference to man of the animals 
themselves, and by the perfection of modern firearms. 
It appears that although the bison had for more than a century been subject 
to a merciless persecution, both by Indians and Whites, yet up to the year 1830, 
beyond a certain restriction in its area of distribution, this desultory warfare had 
not made any very serious inroads on the numbers of the animals; and that as late 
