Extinct Wild Animals in ^Yiscon■sin. 255 



THE LAEGER WILD ANIMALS THAT HAVE BECOME 

 EXTINCT IN WISCONSIN. 



(Read at the Raciae meeting.) 

 By Db. p. R. Hot. 



A record of the date and order in whicb native animals become 

 extinct within the bounds of any country is of present interest, 

 and in the future may be perused with redoubled satisfaction. 



Fifty years ago the territory now included in the state of Wis- 

 consin was nearly in its primitive condition. Then many of the 

 larger wild animals were abundant. Now all has changed ; the 

 ax and plow, gun and dog, railway and telegraph, have com- 

 pletely metamorphosed the face of nature. Not a few of the 

 large quadrupeds and birds have been exterminated or have hid 

 themselves away in the wilderness of northern Wisconsin. 



There was a time, away back in the dim past, when the mas- 

 todon, ox, elephant, tapir, peccary, and musk-ox roamed over the 

 ancient prairies of Wisconsin, but now only their bones, from 

 time to time, are exhumed and thus exposed to the wondering 

 gaze of the ignorant many and the trained eye of the wiser few. 

 We shall at this time, however, confine our attention to the his- 

 toric period. 



The antelope, AiitilocarjKi Americana^ now found only on the 

 western plains, did, two hundred years ago, inhabit Wisconsin as 

 far east as Like Michigan. In October, 1679, Father Hennepin, 

 with La Salle and party, in four canoes, coasted along the western 

 shore of Lake Michigan. In Hennepin's narrative he says : '' The 

 oldest of them " [the Indians] " came to us the next morning, with 

 their calumets of peace, and brought some loild goats y This was 

 at or near Milwaukee. " Being in sore distress, we saw upon the 

 coast a great many ravens and eagles, from whence we conjectured 

 there was some prey, and having landed on that spot we found 

 above the half of a fat wild goat which the wolves had strangled. 

 This provision was very acceptable to us, and the rudest of our 

 men could not but praise the Divine Providence which took so 

 particular care of them." This was, undoubtedly, near Racine. " On 

 the 16th " [October 16, 1679] " we met with abundance of game; 



