1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 177 



greater or less extent along the southern boundaries of the State in 

 this region. On the west Cumberland plateau, there is Buffalo 

 Valley, in Putnam County, and in the Smoky Mountain range, a 

 Bufflilo Ridge in Washington County, and a place called Bison on 

 the Pigeon River in Cocke County. 



At the period of its earliest settlement, the hills and coves of the 

 Allegheny Mountains in Tennessee, were in many places covered 

 with large tracts of native grasses* which formed the pasture lands 

 of herds of elk, and attracted, in summer, the bison from the low- 

 lands. 



The pristine condition of the country around Nashville may 

 be gathered from the following quotation from Ramsey's Annals : 

 " When the first settlers came to the BluflF [site of Nashville,] 

 in 1779-80, Haywood says the country had the appearance of 

 one which had never before been cultivated. There was no sign of 

 any cleared land nor other appearance of former cultivation. 

 Nothing was presented to the eye but one large plain of woods and 

 cane, frequented by buffalo, elk, deer, wolves, foxes and other 

 animals suited to the climate. The lands adjoining the French 

 Lick [at Nashville] which Mansker in 1769, when he first hunted 

 there, called an old field, was a large open space frequented and 

 trodden by buffaloes, whose large paths led to it from all parts of 

 the country and there concentred." 



Numerous accounts from various sources indicate that the cen- 

 tral basin of Tennessee and the blue-grass region of Kentucky, 

 connecting therewith, were not inhabited by Indians when first 

 discovered, but formed a sort of traditional game preserve and 

 hunting ground upon which the hostile tribes of Chickasaws, 

 Natchez, Creeks, Cherokees and Shawnees assembled at certain sea- 

 sous, to hunt the buflTalo and, incidentally, each other. In Ramsey 

 (p. 193), we read that in the summer of 1777, Capt. De Membrune 

 living at Easton's Station, near Nashville, " saw no Indians * * ^ 

 but immense numbers of buffaloes and other game." In February 

 of the same year, it is stated that the same party " in their excur- 

 sions had seen no Indians, but immense herds of buffaloes. One of 

 their companions, William Bowen, had been overran by a gang of 

 these animals and died from the bruises he received." 



From " A short Description of the State of Tennessee," a booklet 

 printed for Matthew Carey in 1796, the following paragraph may 



* Kamsey, Ann. of Tenn., 1853, p. 96. 



