THE AMERICAN BISONS. 5 



him to differ only in its somewhat larger size and longer, less curved horns. 

 Cuvier repeated his figure and description of the American specimen in the 

 first and subsequent editions of his " Ossemens Fossiles," and retained the 

 same opinion respecting the affinities of the living and extinct bisons until 

 the edition of 1825, when he admitted, in view of the slight differences 

 which distinguish the aurochs from the American bison (Bison americamis), 

 the fossil bison as a third species.* 



In 1825 the same specimen was also described by Dr. Richard Harlan,t 

 who, believing it to be a species distinct from the aurochs, gave it the name 

 of Bos latifrons, which, as will be shown later, forms the first systematic name 

 any of the extinct species received. In 1827 Bojanus,$ in his memoir on 

 fossil oxen, in the description of his Urus prisons (seu Urns nostras), cites the 

 specimen " ex America septentrionalis " described by Cuvier ; it is also 

 referred to by H. v. Meyer in 1832, as well as by other authors, being 

 always regarded as specifically identical with the European fossil bison (Bos 

 prisons, seu Bison prisons auct.). 



In 1831 Buckland, in his list of the vertebrate fossils brought by Captain 

 Beechey from the ice-cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, enumerates the remains of 

 "fossil oxen," some of which he refers to a "Bos urus" (probably meaning the 

 Bison prisons of other authors), and which constitute the first remains of an 

 extinct bison found in America after the original specimen described by 

 Peale. They received no further notice, however, for many years. 



In 1846 the greater portion of the skull of a large extinct bison was dis- 

 covered on the Brazos River, near San Felipe, Texas, together with a molar 

 tooth. These were described by Dr. W. M. Carpenter,§ and formed the 

 second specimens discovered in the United States. The skull seems to have 

 lacked only a part of the facial bones, and the horn-cores were nearly entire. 

 The specimen was of the same gigantic proportions as the one made known 

 by Mr. Peale. 



In 1852 Dr. Leidy || described five molar teeth of a fossil bison, discovered 

 near Natchez, Mississippi, " in association with remains of Mastodon, Equus, 



* 0=s. Fos., 3d Ed., Vol. IV, p. 148. 

 f Fauna Auier., p. 273. 

 % Nov. Acta, Acad. Nat. Cur., XIII, 2. 

 § Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d Ser., I, 245. 



|| Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1852, p. 117. — Memoir on the Extinct Species of American Ox, p. 9, 

 pi. ii, figs. 2-7. 



