Evening star., 1917-01-07
america ONCE RICH
IN W|LD,AN|MALS
Formerly More Abundant Here
Than on Other Continents of
| Northern Hemisphere.
PLENTIFUL AGES AGO

although the wild life Of Nortl
America Is more abundant than that o
the other continents of the northern
hemisphere and has only Africa as
world rival. yet our present-day rich
ness In this respect Is decidedly poo
compared with the abundance and va
riety Of mammalian life that roame,
our plains before the advent of tn
white man, while the vast number o
species which disappeared even befor,
the Indians came to inhabit the land Il
even more astonishing"
In a communication to the Nationa
Geographic Society. E. W. Nelson. chic
of the United States geological survey
gives an amazing account of Norti
American wild life in prehistoric times
A portion OF the communication hal
been made public by the society in tn,
following bulletin:
The original buffalo herds hav,
been estimated to have contained from
s0.000.00o to 60. 900 animals (the lat.
ter figure is 100000 greater than tn.
total number of cattle in the UniteC
States, according to the census Of
1910. and in 1870 it was estimated thai
about 5,500.000 still survived-exceed-
ing by 100000 the number of mules ir
the United States in 1910. A number OF
men now living were privileged to see
some Of the great herds of the west be.
FORE they were finally destroyed. DR.
george Bird Grinnell writes:
Train Stopped by Buffalo.
"Tn 1870. I happened to be on a
train that was stopped for three hours
fc lat kar - Aor
posed they would soon pass by. but
they kept on coming. On a number of
occasions in earlier days tho engineers
thought that they could run through
the herds, and that, seeing the loco
aside, but after a few locomotives had
been ditched by the animals the engi-
neers got in the way of respecting the
buffaloes' idiosyncracies'
Astonishing as was the number of
Buffalo which roaned the plains of
old. even more numerous were the an
telope. though the latter did not at,
tract as much attention as the larger
mammals. Besides these, the chron-
fclers of the colonial days give many
number Of other wild animals. includ-
ing bears. wapiti. white-tailed deer
and turkeys. on which the wolves made
nerce war. One writer narrates that
&ot us tnC OI LOWELL,
1900 moose were SHARED on the Great
Manftoulin Island, at the head Of Lake
Huron.
The wealth OF animal life found by
cur forebears was one of the great nat
ural resources of the new world AL
though freely drawn upon from the first,
the stock was but little depleted up to
within century. During the last 100
years. however. the rapidly increasing
occupation Of the continent and other
xr~sfh .ko T.
creasing commercial demand for an
fmal products. have had an appalling
eject The buffalo. elk and antelope
are reduced to pitiful fraction of
their former countless numbers.
Practically all other large game has
alarmingy decreased. and its extermi-
nation has been partly stayed only by
the recent enforcement Of protective
laws.
Scarce in South America.
i"The recent great abundance Of large
land mammals In North America, both in
individuals and species. is in striking
contrast with their scarcity In South
America. the difference evidently beins
due to the long isolation of the south-
whence it might have been restocked
after the loss of formerly existing
fauna
The fossil beds of the great plains
of North America and other parts of
the west contain eloquent proofs of the
richness and variety Of mammal life on
this continent at different periods in
the past. Perhaps the most wonder
ful Of all these ancient faunas was that
mammals which had been trapped in
the asphalt pits recently discovered in
the outskirts of Los Angeles. Cal
These bones show that prior to the ar
.I -
Of southern California swarmed with
an astonishing wealth of strange birds
and beasts The most notable Of these
are saber-toothed tigers. lions much
larger than those of Africa. giant
wolves. several kinds of bears. includ-
Ing the huge cave bears. even larger
than the gigantic brown bears OF
Alaska. large wild horses. camels
bison (unlike our buffalo). tiny ante
lope. the size of fox; mastodons
mammoths with fusks fifteen feet long
and giant ground sloths, IN addition to
many other species. large and small.
with these amazing mammals were
equally strange birds. including among
numerous birds Of prey a giant vui-
turslike species Oar larger than any
condor). peacocks and many others.
There Is reason for believing that
primitive man occupied California and
the latter part Of the period when the
fauna Of the asphalt pits still fiourished.
The folklore of the locally restricted Cali
fornia Indians contains detailed descrip-
tions Of a beast which is unmistakably
q bison. probably the bison Of the asphalt
pits.
Bones Of Gigantic Birds.
The discovery In these pits Of the
bones Of a gigantic vulturelike bird OF
prey Of far greater size than the condor
In even more startling. since the folklore
OF the Eskimos and Indians Of most of
the tribes from Bering straits to Cali
fornia and the Rocky mountain region
abound in tales Of the thunder bird'-a
gigantic bird Of prey like a mighty eagle
capable Of carrying away people In its
talous. Two such condolences suggest
the possibility that the accounts Of the
based on the originals OF the asphalt beds
and have been passed down in legendary
history through many thousands OF years
Among other marvels our fossil beds
reveal the fact that both camels and
horses originated in North America
The remains of many widely differen,
species OF both animals have been
from coast to coast In the United
States. Camels and horses, with many
species of antelope closely related to
stiil existing forms In Africa, abounded
over large part of this country up to
the end Of the geological age imme-
diately preceding the present era
AT the time of its discovery by Co.
mesticated animal-the dog. In most
Instances the ancestors of the Indian
dogs appear to have been the native
coyotes or gray wolves, but the de.
ocriptions Of some dogs found by the
early explorers indicate very different