THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 73 
now in progress in our western wilds, the zodlogical record of to-day 
must rapidly pass into the domain of the paleontologist. I select 
for my purpose only the more prominent of the many examples 
which might be given of animals in the west, which are rapidly 
becoming extinct through the agency of man—directly or indirectly 
at the hand of civilized man. 
The American bison (Bos Americanus Gmelin), according to 
Riitimeyer, is identical with Bison priscus of the British palæo- 
lithic or drift deposits. The European aurochs (Bos bison or 
Bison Europeus) eannot be specifically separated from the latter, 
(B. priscus), however, for it is possible to trace the gradations 
between them. Sir J. Lubbock asserts that “the American form 
of bison is the more archaic.”* It is, perhaps, somewhat remark- 
able that an ancient genus containing forms so well suited to 
supply man with many of the comforts and luxuries of life, should, 
notwithstanding the better adaptations produced by domestication 
and careful breeding, still be so well represented by members in 
a wild state.; The aurochs is now nearly extinct, but some are 
found in the Carpathian Mountains and the marshy forests of 
Poland, while it is said to be represented by a few individuals in 
western Asia, in the neighborhood of Mount Caucasus. Several 
hundred were for a long time carefully preserved by the emperor 
of Russia, in the forests of Lithuania, but little is now generally 
known concerning them, and it is to be feared that they are there 
nearly or quite exterminated. 
The urus (Bos primigenius), according to one historian; existed 
in Switzerland as late as the sixteenth century. 
The American bison formerly ranged over a very large portion 
of this country east of the Rocky Mountains, extending even to 
the Atlantic, and southward into Mexico. In 1862, according to 
Baird, “its main range was between the upper Missouri and the 
Rocky Mountains, and from northern Texas and New Mexico to 
Great Martin Lake in latitude 64° N.”§ This was equivalent 
to an area of 1,500,000 Ten miles. To-day they roam over 
+ Prehistoric Timies, 1960, 
_ | Besides the American bison oe the aurochs there are now existing wild in India, 
ee (Bos bubalus Linn), and the arnee (B. arni coats in southern Africa, the 
Cape (B. j; 
a: 3 and i in the Malayan Annies A me weng (B.S 
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