no. 2086. SOME MAMMALS OE THE PLEISTOCENE— HAY. 523 



this two folds of the enamel. At the bottom of the excavation there 

 arose a slender accessory column, but this is broken off. This tooth 

 in B. bison presents a considerable amount of variation, and it is 

 possible that it sometimes takes the form seen here in B. sylvestris. 



The two molars resemble closely the corresponding teeth of B. 

 bison. The inner columns are somewhat more sharply separated by 

 shallow folds of the enamel from the body of the tooth, but probably 

 similar conditions might now and then be found in specimens of 

 B. bison. One can not yet say that there is any character in the 

 teeth of B. sylvestris by which it may be distinguished with cer- 

 tainty from B. bison; but it is also true that the teeth of all the 

 bisons are much alike and all resemble closely those of the do- 

 mestic ox. 



It will be seen that the animal whose scanty remains were secured 

 in Ohio does not belong to the genus Bos; it is equally evident that 

 it did not belong to any species of bison hitherto found in this coun- 

 try. To judge from the parts known, the type-specimen had the 

 size of a small domestic cow ; but it is probable that the males were 

 considerably larger. The skull seems to have been somewhat wider, 

 but to have had the same length. The horns were feeble, but doubt- 

 less larger in the males. As to the habits of this bison, we can infer 

 little. There can be no doubt that, like the megalonyx which found 

 a grave in the same spot, it lived after the passing away of the Wis- 

 consin ice sheet. The presence of the megalonyx seems to imply the 

 existence of a climate warmer than that of to-day. At the same 

 time in all probability there lived in that region mastodons, ele- 

 phants, peccaries, and the giant beaver, all, like the bison, now gone. 

 Doubtless then, as now, Ohio was heavily forested. In these forests, 

 possibly haunting the swamps, lived the animal that is to be known 

 as Bison sylvestris. 



BOOTHERIUM NIVICOLENS, new species. 



Diagnosis. — A Pleistocene species of Bootherium which has the 

 exostoses of the horn-cores slightly encroaching on the forehead; 

 horn cores directed strongly outward, only slightly downward and 

 forward. 



Type. — Both horn-cores with the frontals. Found at Elephant 

 Point, Alaska. 



An incomplete skull of a species of musk ox, No. 2324 in the 

 United States National Museum, was collected in 1880 on the shores 

 of Eschscholtz Bay, Alaska, probably at Elephant Point, by Capt. C. 

 L. Hooper, commanding II. S. revenue steamer Corwin. The speci- 

 men has hitherto been regarded as the skull of a female of Ovibos 

 moschatus, but a close examination shows that this is an error. 



