77 



decrease of the rain-fall, tvMch I telieve to be a concomitatit of the disappearance of the 

 glacial period. 



"The qaestion of the origin of the Bnffalo, and its relation to the earliest tribes of 

 people in this district, is made still more complicated by the fact that there is no doubt 

 that there -was an earlier and closely related species of Buffalo in this district^ probably 

 coeval with the Mammoth and Mastodon, and probably with the Caribou and Elk, 

 which had doubtless disappeared before the coming of any race of men that has as yet 

 been identified in this country, 



"The succession of eyents in this region, as far as the species of Bison are concerned, 

 seems to have been somewhat as follows, viz. • 



"1. The existence of the Bison latifroni with the Mammoth and its contemporaries, 

 the Mastodon, Musk Ox {Boolherium cavifrons, Leidy), etc* This species, like its con" 

 temporaries, by its size gave evidence of the even climate and abundant vegetation of 

 the time just following, and probably in part during the glacial peiriod. 



" S. The disappearance of this fauna, followed by the coming of a race (mound 

 builders) that retained no distinct traditions, and have left no art records of the presence 

 of any of the large animals of the preceding time. 



"3. The disappearance of this race from the region north of the Tennessee, proba^ 

 bly leaving representatives in the Natchez group of Indians, followed by the occupation 

 of the country by a race that greatly extended the limits of the treeless plains to the 

 eastward, and so permitted the coming of the modern Bison into this region. 



"I have long been disposed to look upon the succeeding glacial periods as the most 

 effective causes of the changes that led to the determination of new specific characters 

 among animals ; and I am strongly disposed to think that in the Bison americanus we 

 have the descendant of the Bison latifrone, modified by existence in the new conditions 

 of soil and climate to which it was driven by the great changes closing the last ice age< 



" When the exploration of Big Bone Lick is completed, it will doubtless show that 

 there was an interval of some thousands of years between these two species." 



FAMILY CERVIDiE. 



These are herbivorous animals, having the stomach in four compart- 

 ments, of the ordinary ruminant pattern. Dentition ; i. |:| ; c. \'\; pm. 

 |:| ; m. f:|. Horns deciduous, solid, more or less branched, developed 

 from the frontal bone, covered, at first, by a soft, hairy integument (velvet). 

 When the horns attain their full size (which they do in a very short 

 time), there arises at the base of each a ring of tubercles known as the 

 " burr " ; this compresses, and finally obliterates the blood-vessels supply- 

 ing the integument, which dries up and is stripped oflP, leaving the bone 

 hard and insensible ; the horns are sexual characters, wanting in the 

 female, excepting in the Reindeer (and very rarely in the Common Deer^ 

 C virginianua) ; they are usually present in the male ; they are shed an- 

 nually, the separation of the beam from the pedicel taking place just 

 below the burr. 



The Oervidae are a widely distributed family, few regions being without 

 one or more peculiar s|)ecies ; a notable proportion are found in the New 



