THE AMERICAN BISON. 
115 
iially descended from the same common stock; and 
when to this we add the many points of discrepancy 
in outward form between the Bison and the Aurochs, 
with which alone it can possibly be confounded, the 
immense portion of the surface of the earth interposed 
between the habitats to which they are severally con- 
fined, and the striking dissimilarities observable in their 
character and habits, it is impossible not to agree with 
M. Cuvier in regarding the two races as originally, and 
therefore specifically, distinct. 
These animals are met with throughout nearly the 
whole of the uninhabited parts of North America, from 
Hudson's Bay to Louisiana and the frontiers of Mexico. 
They are smaller in the north, and do not appear to 
congregate together in the immense herds which are 
spoken of as covering miles in extent of the vast open 
savannahs of the more southern districts. Modern 
American travellers, and particularly Captains Lewis 
and Clarke and Dr. James, bear frequent testimony to 
the almost incredible numbers in which they assemble 
on the banks of the Missouri. " Such was the mul- 
titude of these animals," say the former gentlemen, 
^^that although the river, including an island over 
which they passed, was a mile in length, the herd 
stretched, as thick as they could swim, completely 
from one side to the other." And again, " If it be 
not impossible to calculate the moving multitude which 
darkened the whole plains, we are convinced that 
twenty thousand would be no exaggerated number." 
Dr. James tells us that " in the middle of the day 
countless thousands of them were seen cominsr in from 
every quarter to the stagnant pools;" their paths, as 
he informs us elsewhere, being as frequent and almost 
as conspicuous as the roads in the most populous parts 
of the United States," 
I 2 
