THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 377 



on the Atlantic coast, it extended westward through a vast tract of 

 dense forest, across the Alleghany Mountain system to the prairies 

 along the Mississippi, and southward to the Delta of that great stream. 

 Although the great plains country of the West was the natural home 

 of the species, where it flourished most abundantly, it also wandered 

 south across Texas to the burning plains of northeastern Mexico, west- 

 ward across the Eocky Mountains into New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho, 

 and northward across a vast treeless waste to the bleak and inhospita- 

 ble shores of the Great Slave Lake itself. It is more than probable that 

 had the bison remained unmolested by man and uninfluenced by him, 

 he would eventually have crossed the Sierra Nevadas and the Coast 

 Kange and taken up his abode in the fertile valleys of the Pacific slope. 



Had the bison remained for a few more centuries in undisturbed pos- 

 session of his range, and with liberty to roam at will over the North 

 American continent, it is almost certain that several distinctly recog- 

 nizable varieties would have been produced. The buffalo of the hot 

 regions in the extreme south would have become a short-haired animal 

 like the gaur of India and the African buffalo. The individuals inhab- 

 iting the extreme north, in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake, for exam- 

 ple, would have developed still longer hair, and taken on more of the 

 dense hairy ness of the musk ox. In the " wood " or " mountain buffalo" 

 we already have a distinct foreshadowing of the changes which would 

 have taken place in the individuals which made their permanent resi- 

 dence upon rugged mountains. 



It would be an easy matter to fill a volume with facts relating to the 

 geographical distribution of Bison americanus and the dates of its occur- 

 rence and disappearance in the multitude of different localities embraced 

 within the immense area it once inhabited. The capricious shiftings of 

 certain sections of the great herds, whereby large areas which for many 

 years had been utterly un visited by buffaloes suddenly became overrun 

 by them, could be followed up indefinitely, but to little purpose. In 

 order to avoid wearying the reader with a mass of dates and references, 

 the map accompanying this paper has been prepared to show at a glance 

 the approximate dates at which the bison finally disappeared from the 

 various sections of its habitat. In some cases the date given is coin- 

 cident with the death of the last buffalo known to have been killed in 

 a given State or Territory ; in others, where records are meager, the 

 date given is the nearest approximation, based on existing records. In 

 the preparation of this map I have drawn liberally from Mr. J. A. 

 Allen's admirable monograph of " The American Bison," in which the 

 author has brought together, with great labor and invariable accuracy, 

 a vast amount of historical data bearing upon this subject. In this 

 connection I take great pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to 

 Professor Allen's work. . 



While it is inexpedient to include here all the facts that might be 

 recorded with reference to the discovery, existence, and ultimate extinc- 



