364 UNGULATA 
and Dakota. A herd of some two hundred wild individuals, 
derived from the northern herd, is preserved by the United States 
Government in the Yellowstone National Park; and it is believed 
that some five hundred of the race known as Wood-Bison exist in 
British territory ; but with these exceptions this magnificent species 
is exterminated. The multitudes in which the American Bison 
formerly existed are almost incredible ; the prairies being absolutely 
black with them as far as the eye could reach, and the numbers 
in the herds being, as we have said, reckoned by millions. Mr. 
Hornaday even considers that the whole of the game in South 
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SR Na YN J iy 
SSAA 
Fic. 149.—The Yak (Bos grunniens), domestic variety. 
Africa was never equal to the number of Bison on an equal area of 
the American prairies. 
An extinct Bison from the Pleistocene of Texas, known as Bos 
latifrons, was probably the ancestor of the recent American species. 
The Yak (Bos .grunniens) appears to be allied both to the Bisons 
and the true Oxen, being distinguished from the former by the 
different position occupied by the long hair, which forms a fringe 
investing the shoulders, flanks, and thighs, and grows over the 
whole of the tail. In the skull the orbits are less tubular, the fore- 
head flatter, and the premaxille less widely separated from the 
nasals. There is no distinct dewlap. Wild Yaks inhabit the 
higher regions of Chinese Tibet and the region of the Karakoram 
as well as the more outlying parts of Ladak, such as the Chang- 
chemo valley. Owing, however, to incessant pursuit those now found 
within the territories of the Maharaja of Kashmir are stragglers 
