Abstract
THE American Naturalist for September commences with an article by Mr. W. J. Hays, entitled “Notes on the range of some of the Animals in America at the time of the arrival of the white men.” The moose, now almost entirely driven out of the United States, was, at the time of the first European settlement, found as far south as New York city; the range of the carriboo was not more extensive then than it is now, although fossil remains have been found as far south as the Ohio; the musk-ox is not mentioned by the early travellers; but the common deer (Cervus virginianus and C. campestris) was everywhere represented as existing in incredible numbers. The Wapiti deer was found all along the coast from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico; the bison (improperly called the buffalo by the early settlers), also ranged along the coast from the valley of the Connecticut to Florida, and roamed over the entire country now known as the United States, and extending as far north as the sixtieth parallel in British America. Mr. Hays reckons that at the present time not fewer than half-a-million bisons are annually destroyed by the hand of man. The red fox existed in America before the advent of the white man, in addition to the gray species, notwithstanding assertions to the contrary; wolves were everywhere abundant, as also was the beaver; the jaguar, not now found east of Texas, occurred in the mountains of North Carolina as recently as 1737; the dog was found in all parts of the country; and, from the descriptions, must have been of the same species as those now found with the Indians of the plain. The only other original article in the number is “On the Food and Habits of some of our Marine Fishes” by Prof. A. E. Verrill.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 4, 399–400 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/004399c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/004399c0