THE AMERICAN BISONS. 33 



separated localities. They have generally been found in the beds or banks 

 of streams, and when found with other remains have been associated with 

 extinct species belonging to the Fauna preceding the present. It is worthy 

 of remark that the great deposits of bones found at the Kentucky Salt Licks, 

 especially that of Big-bone Lick, have yielded thus far no remains that have 

 been identified as belonging to this gigantic representative of the ox tribe, 

 although containing the remains of Mastodon, Elephas, Megalonyx, and Myhdon, 

 together with those of the fossil horse, the great extinct musk ox, the lesser 

 extinct bison, the extinct peccary, the caribou, and the moose. 



B. Bison antiquus. 



1. Biff-bone Lick, Kentucky. — The original specimen on which the Bison 

 antiquus was founded came, as is well known, from Big-bone Lick, Kentucky. 

 This, however, remains the sole specimen thus far known from that locality, 

 although thousands of specimens of bison remains have been examined in 

 the search for other relics of this species. In 1869 Professor N. S. Shaler 

 made an extended exploration of this locality, at which time he collected 

 and sent to the Museum of Comparative Zoology a very large collection of 

 bison remains, numbering over a thousand specimens. These I have ex- 

 amined with much care, without finding any bison remains differing from the 

 remains of Bison americanus sufficiently to warrant their reference to any 

 other form of bison. I have found no trouble in matching the largest speci- 

 mens with the corresponding parts of large specimens of the living bison 

 from the plains of Kansas. 



As previously noticed, the tooth described by Dr. Leidy from the post- 

 pliocene beds of the Ashley River, South Carolina, and the bison remains 

 from Darien, Georgia, may belong either to this species or to the female of 

 Bison latifrons. 



These remains are all that have thus far been found east of the Rocky 

 Mountains that can be ascribed to Bison antiquus, and only the single original 

 specimen can be identified as such with entire certainty. 



2. Eschsc/toltz Bay, Alaska. — The ice-cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay have fur- 

 nished an abundance of the remains of this species, two considerable collec- 

 tions having been made by English explorers, and described by Sir John 

 Richardson in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Herald. They were found 

 in association with the remains of Elephas primiffenius and Ovibos, in varying 



