THE HOOFED MAMMALS. 163 



some of the adjacent districts, running completely wild in the former area, 

 but artificially protected in the latter. It -appears to be essentially a forest- 

 haunting animal. The American bison (B. americanus), locally known aa the 

 buflalo, is very closely allied, but is of rather smaller dimensions, with lower 

 and weaker hind-quarters, but a stronger and more massive shoulder, a 

 greater abundance of long hair on the fore-quarters, and a rather shorter 

 tail. The range of this splendid animal extended from a short distance 

 north of the Gulf of Mexico to beyond the Saskatchewan in Canada, and 

 probably reached almost from the Atlantic to the Pacific sea-board. For 

 seventy years, at least, the Mississippi may, however, be regarded as its 

 extreme eastern boundary. The countless millions in which bison formerly 

 roamed over the open prairies are known to all ; but incessant pursuit 

 and ths opening up of the country by railroads, slowly, but too surely, 

 tended to its complete extermination from the open country. According, 

 however, to Mr. Theodore Roose veldt, there are still, and always have been, 

 small numbers of bison inhabiting the Rucky Mountains northwards from 

 Colorado, and the depths of the great forests in the sub- Arctic regions beyond 

 the Saskatchewan River, and these, though locally called mountain-buffalo 

 or wood-bison, are only a variety of the bison of the plains. For some 

 years there have been reports of a small herd of bison inhabiting the remote 

 corner of Val Verde county, Texas, near the Rio Grande border ; and some 

 time ago a shepherd came upon the herd and counted it to comprise fifty 

 individuals. Commenting on this, a writer in the Asian newspaper of June 

 15th, 1895, observes that, "when we consider the enormous area of the 

 country and the sparse population in the more mountainous and wooded 

 districts, we find no difficulty in believing that the animal survives in small 

 numbers, as a denizen of the forest, varying, in accordance with his new con- 

 ditions of life, from the bison which roamed the prairies in tens of thousands 

 a quarter of a century ago. And when we consider the physical peculiarities 

 of the animal, there is reason to think that in the woods the species may hold 

 its own against man and other enemies with better success than it did on the 

 plains. His eyesight is not keen — a defect gravely against him in the open, but 

 for obvious reasons of much less consequence in the forest. His acute hearing, 

 of little service on the plains, is invaluable in the woods; and his excellent nose 

 is equally serviceable in either case. It would seem as though the bison had 

 been primarily designed for a sylvan existence. Mr. Rooseveldt observes 

 that the so-called muuntain-buffalo or wood-bison is rather heavier in 

 body and shorter of limb than his brother of the prairie ; but in regard to 

 this we have to remember what a recent writer has said of the prairie-bison 

 in his latter days. Living in a state of perpetual flight from mounted 

 hunters he became specialised with wonderful rapidity. His heavy body 

 became lighter, his legs developed in length, and his whole appearance 

 acquired a certain 'ranginess,' indicative of the effort of nature to adapt her- 

 self to changed conditions ; flight was the refuge of the bison in the last days 

 of his existence as a beast of the plains, and his formation in a few genera- 

 tions underwent the change compelled by the struggle for life. It is possible 

 that Mr. Rooseveldt, when comparing the bison of the Rockies with that of 

 the plains, may have had in mind this latterly specialised animal ; but, 

 nevertheless, we can well believe that forest existence, more sedentary than 

 prairie life even in its past peaceful days, is calculated to develop greater 

 weight of body and brevity of limb. There is no good reason for believing 

 that the bisoii now dwelling in the Rockies, sub- Arctic regions, Texas, and, 



