Journal of Mammalogy 
Published Quarterly by the American Society of Mammalogists 
VoL. 1 AUGUST, 1920 No. 4 
. BISON EEMAINS FROM NEW ENGLAND 
By Gloveb M. Allen 
As long ago as 1849, Sir Charles Lyell published the discovery of 
supposed bison teeth from a bank of glacial clay at Gardiner, Maine. 
In his book recounting his second visit to the United States, Lyell says 
(Second visit to the United States, 1849, vol. 1, pp. 43, 44) that the 
teeth were identified as those of bison by Sir Richard Owen, and that 
they had been found in association with the shells of marine mollusks 
identical with recent species. Three of the teeth eventually passed 
from their original owner, a Mrs. Frederic Allen, to the Bowdoin College 
Museum, and one was given to the Boston Society of Natural History, 
in whose possession it still remains. In his memoir on the American 
bisons Dr. J. A. Allen reviews at some length the history of these 
teeth and shows (Mem. Mus. Comp. Zook, 1876, vol. 4, no. 10, p, 88- 
91) that Lyell had not himself seen the specimens in place, that their 
exact position in the clay bank was doubtful, and that Professor Owen 
disclaimed all responsibility for their identification. After a minute 
comparison, Doctor Allen was unable to distinguish them in any way 
from those of the domestic ox, to which he therefore referred them. 
There seems no reason to question this determination and it appears 
likely that the teeth had reached their position in the clay bank in 
some secondary way. 
There is thus at the present time no proof that the bison ever occurred 
within the present limits of New England. Moreover the careful exam- 
ination of accounts by early travellers as reviewed in Doctor Alienas 
memoir, indicates that within historic times and probably for a long 
period anterior to the coming of white men, the bison ranged no farther 
east than the present west-central Pennsylvania and the southeastern 
end of Lake Erie in what is now the extreme western corner of New 
York State. 
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