OCR Text |
Show 62 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1900 Mountain goat, which is comparatively valueless for flesh or skin, ranges the higher Rocky and Cascade mountains from Montana to Alaska. The musk- ox is a truly arctic form, originally circumpolar in distribution, but now restricted to the Western Hemisphere, where it ranges the frozen wastes of the barren grounds. A closely allied species has recently been discovered in Greenland. The long, woolly coat is highly valued by the Eskimos, and the flesh is said to be excellent. Quite recently the musk- ox has been extensively hunted by sportsmen. Beyond all doubt the most noteworthy of all North American animals is the bison, or " buffalo," by reason of its majestic size, former countless numbers, its practical value, and its lamentable extermination.^ Originally the bison ranged from the Alleghanies to the Rockies and even farther west into Oregon and Nevada, and from Great Slave Lake southward nearly to central Mexico. By 1800 the species was practically exterminated east of the Mississippi, and by the middle of the century the buffalo were restricted to the great plains, where they continued to roam by millions, until 1869, when the completion of the Union Pacific Railway divided them into a " northern herd" and a " southern herd," and initiated the beginning of the end of the race. Previous to this time the killing had been desultory, but in 1871 began the systematic slaughter of the southern herd, which at |