THE BISONS 



The hump is more prominent, the tail shorter, 

 and the horns thicker; but in other respects 

 the two species are closely similar. 1 



Formerly the bison roamed in enormous 

 herds over the whole territory of the United 

 States as far as the Rocky Mountains. The 

 pursuit, or, as we well may say, the senseless 

 slaughter which has been practised by Indians 

 and settlers has driven it back to the prairies 

 on the other side of the Mississippi, and has 

 compelled it to seek refuge at the present day 

 either on the west side of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains or in the northern regions. It is easy 

 to foresee the time in which the American 

 bison, like his European cousin, will be quite 

 extinct. Those bisons still traverse the 

 prairies in herds of several thousand head, 2 

 swim across the largest streams, and under- 

 take great migrations. Since the introduction 



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1 It may be worth while to draw attention here to an error that 

 has crept in a very singular manner into many accounts of the 

 European and American bison. The error is as to the number of 

 ribs, the European bison being stated to have fourteen, and the 

 American fifteen pairs of ribs. The fact is, that both species have 

 the same number of ribs, namely, fourteen pairs. In a note on this 

 subject, J. A. Allen, in his American Bisons, Living and Extinct 

 (p. 2), says : — " In this case the error had a singular origin, and its 

 repetition is to some degree justifiable. The first skeleton of the 

 American bison known in Europe was that obtained from a living 

 specimen received at the Paris menagerie in 1819, and which was 

 described by Cuvier in his Ossemens Fossiles (tome iv. p. 118 of third 

 edition). This specimen — one instance probably in thousands — 

 chanced to have fifteen fairs of ribs, and consequently but four 

 lumbar vertebrae. Cuvier, of course, called attention to this fact as 

 affording an important distinction between the American and Euro- 

 pean bisons. . . . It is hence not strange that mere compilers, 

 and even authorities of some eminence, should for a time perpetuate 

 the error, especially since it was many years before a second skeleton 

 of the American bison fell under the eye of a comparative anatomist. 

 Yet it seems a little strange to find it repeated by leading English 

 anatomists and zoologists for many years after several of the leading 

 museums of Great Britain contained skeletons of the American bison. 

 Owen, as late as 1866, in his great work on the Comparative 

 Anatomy of the Vertebrates (vol. ii. p. 462), says : ' The European 

 bison has fourteen dorsal and five lumbar vertebra:; the American 

 bison has fifteen dorsal and four lumbar, and this is the extreme 

 reached in the Ruminant order, of movable ribs, equalling in 

 number those of the hippopotamus.' " — Tr. 



2 This was probably still true at the date when it was written, 

 but so rapid has been the destruction of this animal in recent years 

 that the National Museum of the United States not long ago thought 

 it necessary to send out an expedition to collect a few specimens 

 before it was completely exterminated. A report furnished to the 

 museum about the middle of 1886 shows what difficulty the expedi- 

 tion had in fulfilling its mission in consequence of the extinction of 

 this species having been so nearly effected already. " It is firmly 

 believed by good authorities," the report states, "that there are not 

 now more than from fifty to one hundred buffaloes in the whole of 

 Montana [where a few years ago this animal was remarkably abun- 

 dant], outside of the National Park, where there are probably from 

 two hundred to three hundred head." — Tr. 



Vol. II. 



of horses and fire-arms into America they 

 flee from man, or only very seldom try to 

 make head against him. When they have 

 once begun to run they plunge on like sheep, 

 with head held down, in dense crowds. 

 They are hunted partly for the sake of the 

 sport, but also for their excellent flesh, their 

 fleece, and their hides. The efforts that have 

 been made to domesticate them have not 

 been successful ; 3 yet in our zoological gardens 

 they are not so savage as the European 

 bison, and they are easily reproduced in 

 confinement. 



[Throughout North America this animal is known 

 as the "buffalo." "I suppose," writes Dodge, one 

 of the veterans of sport in the United States, "I 

 ought to call this animal the 'bison;' but, though 

 naturalists may insist that 'bison' is his true name, 

 I, as a plainsman, also insist that his name is 

 buffalo. 



"As buffalo he is known everywhere, not only on 

 the plains, but throughout the sporting world ; as 

 buffalo 'he lives and moves and has his being;' as 

 buffalo he will die; and when, as must soon happen, 

 his race has vanished from earth, as buffalo he will 

 live in tradition and story." — Plains of the Great 

 West. 



The hunting of the buffalo is pursued either on 

 horseback or on foot, the latter mode being called 

 the "still hunt." "Although," writes Dodge, "there 

 is not a particle of danger in approaching a herd, 

 it requires in a novice an extraordinary amount of 

 nerve. When he gets within three hundred yards, 

 the bulls on that side, with heads erect, tails cocked 

 in air, nostrils expanded, and eyes that seem to 



3 On this subject the following passages from J. A. Allen's 

 American Bisons, Living and Extinct, are worth quoting:— 



"Now that the buffalo is apparently so nearly exterminated, it is 

 greatly to be regretted, not only that its ultimate extinction has been 

 so rapidly hastened by improvident and wanton slaughter, but that 

 no persistent attempts have as yet been made to utilize this valuable 

 animal by domestication. . . . That the buffalo calf may be 

 easily reared and thoroughly tamed needs not at this late day to be 

 proved. The known instances of their domestication are too many 

 to admit even of enumeration, but they have usually been kept 

 merely as objects of curiosity, and little or no care has been given 

 to their reproduction in confinement, and few attempts have been 

 made to train them to labour." 



After quoting accounts of several instances in which domestication 

 had been successfully effected, the writer concludes: "From the 

 foregoing the following facts are sufficiently attested: (1) That the 

 buffalo is readily susceptible of domestication ; (2) that it interbreeds 

 freely with the domestic cow ; (3) that the half-breeds are fertile ; 

 and (4) that they readily amalgamate with the domestic cattle." 

 American Bisons, sec. 4. — Tr. 



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