Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-03-17
- From the Penn Monthly.
THE NORTH AMERICAN BISON.

The Indian and the "buffalo" are
ever associated in the mind as char
acteristie and inseparable features of
the great interior of the North
American continent, and especially
Of the so-called "boundless plaims,'
that extend from Mexico on the one
hand nearly to the Arctic regions on
the other, and from the Mississippi
river 10 the Rocky mountains. And
in many respects is this association
by no means fanciful one, the one
depending in great measure for its
existence upon the other, and both
alike fading away before the rapid
westward advance of civilization
driven into the remoter wilds, as it
is usually expressed, but, in reality,
wiped out of existence-only the So
called remnants of the once pOpulous
bands of either remaining when
westward migration is forced upon
them. The same fate evidently
awaits both-complete extermina-
tion. Though both are)noble in their
way, both in measure cumber the
ground, and disappear but to give
place TO higher grade of life and a
fuller Developments of the natural re-
sources of the;continent. .is sia-i
Whenever civilized man has he'd
sway, thefate of the larger animals
mas always been the sane-tolwit, a
more or less speedy humiliation. In
his subjugatiOn of new countries not
alone are the dangerous wild beasts
of the forests, or those whose pro-
ducts render their destruction
source of rapid increase of wealth,
sacrificed, but the inofensive and
less useful herbreating species also
wither before him as before a fatal
blast, the prudent suggestions Of
self-interest yielding to the strong
er foYe of destruction. f..'-e -.
The history of our American bison
but repeats the history of his con-
geners and affines elsewhere. His
nearest relative, the aurochs of the
old world, which in no very remote
timesroamed over the greater part
of temperate Europe, survives now
only through careful protection, in
the royal parks of the Gar of Rus
ria in Lithuania. where its present
representatives. number but few
hundred individuals. The urus,
which in prehistoric times existed
over a mnch larger area, and which
had a few survivors as late as the
eopqnests of Caesar, long since be-
came extinct,i4 the wild state, and
has hving representatives only in
our domestic races of cattle, from
which they are in part descended.
In our own COUNTRY the Elk, former
lynumerons over the greater part of
the northern and western portions of
the United States, is now nearly ex-
tinct east of the Mississippi river,
and is rapidly approaching extermi-
nation elsewhere. Theeommon Vir.
ginia deer, formerly abundant in all
the older States of the Union, exists
now only here and there in the least
settled districts. From the newer
trans Mississippian States and Ter
Iritories come reports of the rapid
disappearance of not only the elk
and deeFof those regions, but ofthe
mountain sheep and-the prong horn.
In many Of the parks and valleys
within the Rocky mountains, from
New Mexico to Montana, where, but
q few years since, these animalsex-
listed in seemingly exhaustless num-
ben, they have already been extir-
pated. But the case Of the "bntfa-
10, = as our bison will always be COM
monty caAsd, will doubtless be one
of the most remarkable, instances of
determination recorded, ,or ever 70 be
recorded, 10 the annals of zoology.
At the Beginning of the eighteenth
century, this animal occupied fully
two-thirds Of the temperate portions
of North America; since which
time its range has become reduced
to an area not larger than that of
the three territories of Dakota, Mon
tana and Wyoming; while another
decade ortwo, at its present rate of
decrease, viii be sufficient for its to-
tai extermination,
As is well known, the whole area
between the Mississippi river and
the Rocky Mountains has ever been
the region of their greatest abun-
dance, over almost. the whole of
which vast territory they roamed till
within the last half century. Prior
to 1880 they had already been press
ed back for some distance west of
the Mississippi, along nearly its
whole length. The overland emil
gratiou that setoin so vigorously
about la49,l and the construction Of
the Union Pacific Railroad, served
to greatly lessen their numbers, and
to divide them into two distinct
bands, known commonly rs the great
northern and southern herds. In
cessant persecution on all sides, and
especially of late along the lines of
the Kansas railwava-Ka anaaa Paci.