THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 387 



III. Abundance. 



Of all the quadrupeds that have lived upon the earth, probably no 

 other species has ever marshaled such innumerable hosts as those of 

 the American bison. It would have been as easy to count or to esti- 

 mate the number of leaves in a forest as to calculate the number of 

 buffaloes living at any given time during the history of the species pre- 

 vious to 1870. Even in South Central Africa, which has always been ex- 

 ceedingly prolific in great herds of game, it is probable that all its 

 quadrupeds taken together on an equal area would never have more 

 than equaled the total number of buffalo in this country forty years ago. 



To an African hunter, such a statement may seem incredible, but it 

 appears to be fully warranted by the literature of both branches of the 

 subject. 



Not only did the buffalo formerly range eastward far into the forest 

 regions of western New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, 

 and Georgia, but in some places it was so abundant as to cause remark. 

 In Mr. J. A. Allen's valuable monograph* appear a great number of 

 interesting historical references on this subject, as indeed to every other 

 relating to the buffalo, a few of which I will take the liberty of quoting. 



In the vicinity of the spot where the town of Clarion now stands, in 

 northwestern Pennsylvania, Mr. Thomas Ashe relates that one of the 

 first settlers built his log cabin near a salt spring which was visited by 

 buffaloes in such numbers that " he supposed there could not have been 

 less than two thousand in the neighborhood of the spring." During the 

 first years of his residence there, the buffaloes came in droves of about 

 three hundred each. 



Of the Blue Licks in Kentucky, Mr. John Filson thus wrote, in 1784: 

 " The amazing herds of buffaloes which resort thither, by their size and 

 number, fill the traveller with amazement and terror, especially when 



* All who are especially interested in the life history of the buffalo, both scientific 

 and. economical, will do well to consult Mr. Allen's monograph, ''The American 

 Bisons, Living and Extinct," if it be accessible. Unfortunately it is a difficult matter 

 for the general reader to obtain it. A reprint of the work as originally published, 

 but omitting the map, plates, and such of the subject-matter as relates to the extinct 

 species, appears in Hay den's "Report of the Geological Survey of the Territories," 

 for 1875 (pp. 443-587), but the volume has for several years been out of print. 



The memoir as originally published has the following titles : 



Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Kentucky. \ N. S. Shaler, Director. \ Vol. I. Part 

 II. \ — | The American Bisons, \ living and extinct. \ By J. A. Allen. | With twelve plates 

 and map. \ — | University press, Cambridge: | Welch, Bigelow <$• Co. \ 1876. 



Memoris of the Museum, of Comparative Zoology, \ at Harvard College, Cambridge, 

 Mass. | Vol. IV. No. 10. | — | The American Bisons, | living and extinct. \ By J. A. 

 Allen. | Published by permission of N. S. Shaler, Director of the Kentucky | Geological 

 Survey. \ With twelve plates and a map. \ University press, Cambridge: | Welch, Bigelow 

 4- Co. | 1876. | 



4to., pp. i-ix, 1-246, 1 coVd map, 12 pi., 13 11. explanatory, 2 wood-cuts in text. 



These two publications were simultaneous, and only differed in the titles, Unfor- 

 tunately both are of greater rarity than the reprint referred to above. 



