The Larger 

 North American Mammals 



By E. W. nelson 

 Chief, U. S. Biological Survey 



With Illustrations from Paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 



AT the time of its discovery and 

 f\ occupation by Europeans, North 

 X A. -America and the bordering seas 

 teemed with an almost incredible pro- 

 fusion of large mammalian life. The 

 hordes of game animals which roamed 

 the primeval forests and plains of this 

 continent were the marvel of early ex- 

 plorers and have been equaled in historic 

 times only in Africa. 



Even beyond the limit of trees, on the 

 desolate Arctic barrens, vast herds con- 

 taining hundreds of thousands of caribou 

 drifted from one feeding ground to an- 

 other, sharing their range with number- 

 less smaller companies of musk-oxen. 

 Despite the dwarfed and scanty vegeta- 

 tion of this bleak region, the fierce winter 

 storms and long arctic nights, and the 

 harrying by packs of white wolves, these 

 hardy animals continued to hold their 

 own until the fatal influence of civilized 

 man was thrown against them. 



Southward from the Arctic barrens, in 

 the neighboring forests of spruce, tama- 

 rack, birches, and aspens, were multitudes 



of woodland caribou and moose. Still 

 farther south, in the superb forests of 

 eastern North America, and ranging 

 thence over the limitless open plains of 

 the West, were untold millions of buffalo, 

 elk, and white-tailed deer, with the prong- 

 horned antelope replacing the white-tails 

 on the western plains. 



With this profusion of large game, 

 which afforded a superabundance of food, 

 there was a corresponding abundance of 

 large carnivores, as wolves, coyotes, black 

 and grizzly bears, mountain lions, and 

 lynxes. Black bears were everywhere ex- 

 cept on the open plains, and numerous 

 species of grizzhes occupied all the moun- 

 tainous western part of the continent. 



Fur-bearers, including beavers, musk- 

 rats, land-otters, sea-otters, fishers, mar- 

 tens, minks, foxes, and others, were so 

 plentiful in the New World that immedi- 

 ately after the colonization of the United 

 States and Canada a large part of the 

 world's supply of furs was obtained here. 



Trade with the Indians laid the foun- 

 dations of many fortunes, and later devel- 



