452 



REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



or by resistance. Hence the bones of the limbs are elongated, giv- 

 ing the animals a longer stride, and the tips of the toes are encased 

 in hoofs which afford protection and a solid footing. 



Family BOVIDAE. 



CATTLE, SHEEP, ETC. 



Animals with hollow horns which are never shed; no canine or 

 upper incisor teeth ; two functional hoofs on each foot and usually 

 two lateral hoofs which do not reach the ground; stomach with 

 four divisions. 



Genus Bison Hamilton Smith. 



Dental Formula.— I, ',^1; C, Pm, f^; M, |Ef = 32. 



Body covered with crisp woolly hair, longer on the head and 

 shoulders and forming a mane which reaches down on the fore- 

 head. Horns and hoofs black ; height greatest at the shoulder. 



2. BISON BISON (Linnaeus). 

 AMERICAN BISON; BUFFALO. 



Bos hison Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. 10th Ed., I, p. 72, 1758. 



Bison hison Evermann and Butler, Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. for 

 1893, p. 135, 1894. 



Description and habits. — The bison, or buffalo as it is generally 

 but incorrectly called, is too well known from pictures and descrip- 

 tions to require an elaborate diagnosis here. It has not lived in 

 Indiana in a wild state for nearly a century but must be counted 

 with our indigenous mammals that have disappeared before advanc- 

 ing civilization. Two species formerly existed in immense num- 

 bers in North America. The eastern form differs from the wood- 

 land bison of western Canada in its paler color, smaller size and 

 shorter horns. 



In the early days bison were numerous in Indiana on all of the 

 prairies, meadows and in the more open woods. Their range did 

 not extend much beyond the northern boundaries of the State, but 

 doubtless included all of the northern counties. 



Concerning the numbers of bison formerly existing in the Ohio 

 Valley, Mr. Ilornaday quotes from several early travelers as fol- 

 lows: ''The amazing herds of buffaloes which resort thither [to the 

 salt licks in Kentucky] by their size and number fill the traveler 

 with amazement and terror, especially when he beholds the prodig- 

 ious roads they have made from all quarters — the vast space of land 



