It is hard to imagine that, until the middle of the 19th century, up to 60 million bison roamed across the forests and grasslands of North America. South of the Great Lakes, their range reached all the way to the Appalachians, while in Canada large parts of what would become the Prairie provinces were home to the great northern herds. Early settlers pushed these creatures out of the easternmost limits of their habitat by 1800, and only 30 years later, the assault upon the vast herds of the plains had begun. Within only a few decades, the bison were pushed to the brink of extinction, and
