The Bison.—Of all the larger mammals of North America, none was more numerous at the time Europeans advanced over the continent than the bison or "buffalo" (Bos americanus), and none more important alike to the Indian and the white man. The part played by this relative of the domestic ox in the history of the country is not only instructive, but one of the best illustrations that can be furnished of the practical extermination of a species through the greed and lack of forethought of so-called civilized man.
The bison is a shaggy, brown animal, about the size of the well-known Durham breed of cattle, but with a larger head and a prominent hump on the shoulders (Fig. 31). The hind quarters are small in comparison with the massive head and shoulders, and appear weak. The head, neck, shoulders, and fore legs are covered with thick matted hair, at times 16 inches long and of a dark-brown colour merging into black. The straight black hair beneath the chin of the bull is usually some 10 inches in length, and as the animal carries its head low, frequently sweeps the ground. Back of the medial portion of the body the hair is short and of a yellowish-brown colour, or "between dark umber and a living-liver brown," as Audubon says. There is much variation in colour, however, and distinct varieties have been stated to exist. The horns,
hoofs, and a bare space about the nostrils and mouth are black.
The weight of a fully grown bull is about 2,000 pounds, and of a cow 1,200 pounds.
Fig. 32.—Range of the Bison.
The boundaries of the region in which the bison has been seen by white men, together with the dates of its extermination in various sections of the country, etc., are shown in Fig. 32. In about 1870 the vast herd which ranged over the treeless plateaus and Prairie plains between the Rio Grande and Great Slave Lake was divided, owing to the great slaughter that occurred in the vicinity of the Central Pacific Railroad, into two herds, one of which had its summer range in Montana and neighbouring territory,
but moved northward in summer into Canada, while the other fed on the plains of the west Texas region in winter and moved northward in summer as far as southern Nebraska. In each case a southward movement was begun as winter approached, but these seasonal changes scarcely warrant the name of migrations.
The number of these large animals living between the Mississippi and Rocky Mountains previous to 1872, even after being hunted for centuries by the Indians and killed in constantly increasing numbers each year by white men for half a century, can only be reckoned in millions. Many trustworthy observations are on record, however, from which the vastness of the herds can be approximately judged. For example, R. I. Dodge thus refers to a herd which he passed through in the Arkansas Valley in May, 1871, when it was moving northward: "The great herd could not have averaged, at rest, over 15 or 20 individuals to the acre, but was not less than 25 miles wide, and from reports of hunters and others it was about five days in passing a given point, or not less than 50 miles deep. From the top of Pawnee Rock I could see from 6 to 10 miles in almost every direction. This whole vast space was covered with buffalo, looking at a distance like one compact mass, the visual angle not permitting the ground to be seen." From this and other observations, W. T. Hornaday has estimated that the herd referred to numbered not less than 4,000,000 individuals. From the records kept by railroad companies of the number of skins shipped over their lines and other evidences, it has been computed that of the southern herd mentioned above over 3,500,000 individuals were killed during the years 1872, 1873, and 1874. The northern herd seems to have been at least as large as the southern one, so that the entire number on the Great plateaus in any one year for the decade preceding 1870 was not less than 8,000,000, and even this vast number seems to be an underestimate.