pelage,-and are therefore well adapted for comparison with the specimens
of the European species in the collection', a l lB f which were likewise
killed at the same||ason. For comparison of the cows of the two species,-
reference may be made to the excellent figures1 in the memoirs of Messrs.
Allen and Hornaday. No .one who has seen the Bipish Museum examples
can fail to be-struck with the very marked difference between the males
of the European and American forms. In stating that the latter, so far
as the typical r a c e * concerned, has generally shorter horns than the
former, I am aware that Mr. Rowland Ward has recorded dimensions
reached by American specimens exceeding any of those he mentions from
Europe. But it must be remembered that in the case of the former
animal a vastly larger series of specimens is available fS r selection ; and
average specimens are decidedly inferior in size to the few available male
skulls o f the European bison.
An adult bull bison weighed by Mr. Hornaday turned the scale at
1727 lbs. ; and Mr. Rowland Ward jstatfgi that the general weight may
be estimated from about 15 to 20 cwts.
The following are some of the largest horn-measurements mentioned
in Mr. Rowland Ward’s book; probably No. 10 and certainly No. 1 1
belong to the woodland race :—
Length on
Outer Curve.
Basal
Circumference.’
Tip to T ip. Widest Inside. Locality.
2 0 | G ? . 3 ° i W y om in g
1 2 J ? ? G W . M o n ta n a
i 8| ? H Î .
i6i ,,
B P 1 4 -. 2 6 i 29 S io u x C o u n t ry
18 p : A * 4 ■ ? M o n ta n a
u l , I 2 f p p
G i
« 7 *
? p S .-W . M o n tan a
Ilk ■■ 12 ?.
2 5i W y om in g
T I I i o f . 'li p
i 6f- H i 2 4 p B ig h o rn M t s . W y om in g
i6 $ 1 2 J ■ p p
Distribution.— Starting from Pennsylvania, which formed its eastern
limits, the American bison, accBding to Mr. Hornaday, priginally “ 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 system. Although the great plain 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
n||jth-eastern Mexico, westward a « p | the Rocky Mountains into New
Mexico, Utah, and Idaho, and northward across a vast treeleSwaste tt|
the bleak and inhospitable shores of the Great Slave Lake itself. To the
northward of the United States the western llmit-s1 of its range appear to
have been formed by the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, along the
flank«)f which it extended to the Mackenzie river ; and the northern
shore of the Great Slave Lake seems to have been its most northerly limit.
In British territory its easterly range did not extend beyond the plains
lying t||the west (Hthe highlands bordering Hudson Bay, so that it was
entirely. fSisent Sfom the region north of the great lakes.
It will be igticed that in the passage quoted above the bison of the
plainBs regarded as the original form. This, however, as will be subse-
Su en tly mentioned,pi|) an error, the woodland form being doubtless nearer
the primitive type. Regarding the eastern extension of the animal in
Pennsylvania, it is; known to have ranged as far as Lewisburg within a
comparatively late period, the last individual having been killed in Buffalo
Valley, near that town, sometime between 1790 and 1800. Farther east,
the bison, according to Mr. S. N. Rhoads^ had probably been driven
from the Delaware Valley considerably before the advent of the white
man in the New World. The same writer adds that, “ from the scarcity
of its remains and the absence of reliable tradition of its presence in this
locality, it is unlikely that this , species was ever more than a straggler in
the regions east of the Susquehanna river drainage.”