TENNESSEE MAMMALS KELLOGG 259 



returned from a hunt for bear and buffalo meat for the workers 

 (Putnam, 1859, p. 117). The records of Sumner County for 1787 

 show that "good fat bear meat" was accepted for taxes at 14 pence 

 per pound, if delivered where troops were stationed (Putnam, 1859, 

 p. 252). 



Francis Baily (Williams, 1928, p. 407) mentions that while travel- 

 ing the trail between Duck River and Nashville he heard bears and 

 wolves howling on July 29, 1797. Andrew Michaux also records 

 (Williams, 1928, p. 335) that bears were present in 1799 in the 

 vicinity of Nashville. Abraham Steiner and Christian Frederic de 

 Schweinitz wrote in their journal (Williams, 1928, pp. 504, 505, 519) 

 that a bear was killed on November 24, 1799, near Drowning Creek 

 and that John Binkley's party killed three bears the following 

 day near Flat Rock [Cumberland County]. These two missionaries 

 also mention that a Mr. Shaw^, at whose cabin they stayed for one 

 or two days, hunted bears in the vicinity of the Caney Fork road 

 [Putnam County]. 



Black bears could be found without difficulty in 1881 in the moun- 

 tains 15 or 20 miles from Chattanooga (Cee, 1881, p. 309). A few 

 bears were reported in 1880 (Antler, p. 306) in the Caney Fork 

 district, Van Buren County. Edward I. Mullins reported to me 

 that a bear was seen about 1910 on his father's farm near Huntsville, 

 Scott County, and that he had followed the tracks for a short dis- 

 tance. W. M. Perrygo was told by a local resident that a female 

 and her cubs were killed in 1905 about 6 miles east of Waynesboro, 

 Wayne County. This was the last bear seen in that vicinity. While 

 collecting in Cumberland County, Perrygo was informed that a 

 bear had been killed in 1921 near Crossville. 



Black bears were plentiful for many years in the western part of 

 the State. In his account of a voyage down the Mississippi River 

 in 1700, Father James Gravier mentioned (Williams, 1928, p. 68) 

 that "a quantity of bears" had been killed the preceding year at 

 Fort Prud'homme [above Memphis]. While on his journey up the 

 Mississippi River in 1723, Diron d'Artaguette camped a league above 

 the second "Ecores a Prud'homme" [above Memphis, between the 

 mouths of the Hatchie and Coal Creeks] where a "fat she bear of 

 enormous size" was killed on March 23 (Williams, 1930, p. 10). 

 Henry Rutherford and his guide, while surveying a large tract of 

 land in 1785 on the south side of Forked Deer River, Lauderdale 

 County, killed bears and other game for food (Williams, 1930, p. 44). 

 David Crockett (1834, pp. 81, 92, 101), in relating his hunting ex- 

 periences in the lowlands of Obion County, said that he killed bears 

 in Obion County as early as 1822, and this county, longer than any 

 other, remained a good hunting ground for bears and deer (Wil- 



