_Distribution._--Arctic America, approximately north and east of a line drawn from the mouth of the Mackenzie River to Fort Churchill on Hudson Bay, Greenland, and Grinnell Land, in latitude 32° 27´; approximate southern limit, latitude 40° N.
========+=======+======+=================+=================== LENGTH |BREADTH| | | ON | OF |TIP TO| LOCALITY | OWNER OUTSIDE | PALM | TIP | | CURVE | | | | --------+-------+------+-----------------+------------------- --30¼ | 13¾ | 30¼ | ? |W. W. Hart | | | | 27¾ | 10 | 27½ |Barren grounds of|David T. Hanbury | | |northern Canada | | | | | --27½ | 11¾ | 23 |Barren grounds of|Caspar Whitney | | |northern Canada | | | | | 27¼ | 12½ | 27 |Barren grounds of|Earl of Lonsdale | | |northern Canada | | | | | --27¼ | 10⅝ | 27½ |Barren grounds of|Imperial Museum, | | |northern Canada | Vienna | | | | 26⅞ | 11 | 27 |Barren grounds of|Warburton Pike | | |northern Canada | | | | | 26¾ | 12⅜ | .. |North America |British Museum | | | | (J. Rae) | | | | 26¼ | 13⅛ | 27⅝ |North America |British Museum | | | | --25⅝ | 10 | 25 |North America |Dr. Albert von | | | | Stephani | | | | 24¾ | 11 | 25½ |Barren grounds |Warburton Pike | | | | 24¼ | 7½ | 19 |Barren grounds |J. Talbot Clifton | | | | 24¼ | 10½ | 26 |Barren grounds |Hon. Walter | | | | Rothschild | | | | 24 | 9¾ | 23⅛ |North America |Sir Edmund G. | | | | Loder, Bart. | | | | --24 | .. | 25 | ? |Major W. Anstruther | | | | Thomson | | | | 23¼ | 6 | 22¾ | ? |A. Barclay Walker | | | | --21½ | 9 | 27 | ? |Dublin Museum | | | | --♀21⅛ | 4¾ | 20⅝ | ? |Imperial Museum, | | | | Vienna | | | | ♀18⅝ | 4¼ | .. |North America |British Museum | | | | (A. G. Dallas) | | | | ♀17 | 4⅝ | 9⅞ |North America |Dr. Albert von | | | | Stephani --------+-------+------+-----------------+-------------------
-------+--------+------+-----------------+------------------- 24¾ | 8¼ | 22½ |Greenland |Rowland Ward | | | | 24½ | 7¼ | 27 |Greenland |Rowland Ward =======+========+======+=================+===================
The buffalo was the largest and economically the most important of North American mammals. It was also one of the most numerous, and over a great area of the continent was practically the sole support of its aboriginal inhabitants. Within the memory of men who as yet are hardly middle-aged, it roamed the country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, in multitudes so vast that it was commonly stated that its numbers could not be materially reduced, that it would exist long after the speakers had died. Yet, within thirty years it has so absolutely disappeared that the number of living wild buffalo existing to-day is probably not greater than the herd of European bison--commonly, but erroneously, called aurochs--so carefully preserved in the forests of Lithuania by the Russian Czar.