92 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The fourth edition of Dana's Manual of Geology 86 describes and 

 figures the almost complete skeleton of Cervalces found in 

 New Jersey, but incorrectly records the specimen from Warren 

 county, New York. 



Bison bison (Linnaeus) American bison 

 J. A. Allen 87 carefully examined the historical evidence of the 

 former occurrence of the bison in northeastern North America and 

 stated that he " failed to find a single mention of the occurrence of 

 this animal within the present limits of New York, New England, 

 Canada . . . that will bear a critical examination." Allen also 

 pointed out that bison remains had not been found in the Indian 

 shell-mounds of the Atlantic coast. The statement quoted is some- 

 what modified in a later paragraph by the remark that there was 

 fair evidence of the buffalo having ranged as far east as western 

 New York. Several earlier writers asserted, apparently without a 

 careful examination of the evidence, that bison were formerly to be 

 found along the entire Atlantic seaboard from New York to Florida. 

 Although the historical accounts are, at best, misleading and in- 

 definite, the more recent discovery of remains of bison in post- 

 glacial deposits and in the graves and refuse pits of the Indians 

 prove conclusively that the former range of this animal extended 

 not only to western New York but occasionally through the central 

 counties to the Hudson river. 



As early as 1835 mention is made of fossil teeth and bones found 

 10 feet below the surface, in muck overlaid with gravel, at James- 

 town near the outlet of Chautauqua lake. The teeth were submitted 

 to Professor Knight of Yale who identified them as probably be- 

 longing to the buffalo ; and his conclusion is substantiated by the 

 measurements and descriptions given, and by the fact that they were 

 too deeply buried to belong to a domestic animal. 88 



A brief notice of the discovery of a bison skull at Syracuse was 

 given by Underwood. 89 It was said to have been found at a depth 

 of ia feet below the surface of the ground at the junction of 

 deposits of black swamp muck and clay. Burnett Smith, 00 referring 

 to this specimen (plate 25) and quoting its owner, Mr John Cun- 

 ningham of Syracuse, " Places the depth at 17 feet and the position 



sa Manual of Geol., 4th ed., 1895, p. 999. 

 87 Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., 1876, 4:1-246. 

 "Amer. Jour. Sci., 1835, 27:167-168. 

 ffl Amer. Nat., 1890, 24:953-54. 

 D0 N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 171, 1914, p. 67-68. 



