266 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IsTATIONiyL, MUSEUM vol.86 



Eeferences to ATolves are more numerous in the early records of 

 middle Temiessee. Ramsey (1853, p. 206) mentions that wolves were 

 present in 1780 in the vicinity of the Bluff [Nashville]. Other rec- 

 ords show that wolves were so numerous at the time the Nashville 

 settlements were established that the settlers were compelled to build 

 pens as traps. During the winter of 1788, wdien many of the settlers 

 had sought refuge from the Indians at Rains Station [on Browns 

 Creek, 21/2 miles south of Nashville], the hunters, men and boys, 

 would "occasionally visit their wolf and turkey pens" (Putnam, 1859, 

 p. 296). An entry in the journal of Andre Michaux (Williams, 1928, 

 p. 335) written at Nashville on June 21, 1795, indicates that wolves 

 were present in the vicinity. Francis Baily (Williams, 1928, p. 407), 

 while traveling the trail from Duck River to Nashville, mentions hear- 

 ing the howling of wolves on June 29, 1797. In John Lipscomb's 

 journal (Williams, 1928, p. 276) under date of June 29, 1784, it is 

 recorded that two big buffalo bulls followed by a wolf were seen at 

 a lick near Little Barren River [Macon County, Tenn., or Allen 

 County, Ky.]. Abraham Steiner and Christian Frederic de Schwein- 

 itz, while traveling eastward on the Caney Fork road, stopped for 

 a day or so at the cabin of a Mr. Shaw. Under date of December 

 12, 1799, they wrote in their journal (Williams, 1928, p. 519) that 

 "here [Smith or Putnam County], in proximity to the wilderness, 

 there are deer, bear, and wolves in great numbers." Williams (1930, 

 pp. 96, 180) writes that in 1819 v.olves attacked pigs, young calves, 

 and fawns and that bounties were paid to the trappers and hunters 

 for scalps of wolves. Audubon and Bachman (1851, vol. 2, p. 129) 

 describe a pit trap that was used in Kentucky, and it is quite likely 

 that similar wolf pits were constructed in western and middle Ten- 

 nessee. In 1880 (Antler, p. 306) it was reported that gray wolves 

 were occasionally found in the Caney Fork district. Van Buren 

 County. It was reported to W. M. Perrygo that a female and her 

 pups had been killed about 1917 near Waynesboro, Wayne County. 

 Another wolf was killed in 1919 on North Fork River, Cumberland 

 County. 



No specific mention of gray wolves has been found in the early 

 accounts of western Tennessee. Benjamin C. Miles (1895, p. 182) 

 supposed that the large gray wolf extended its range into the river 

 bottoms of Lauderdale County about 1890 or 1891. Subsequently he 

 learned from Major Shaw (Rhoads, 1896, p. 200), an old hunter of 

 Haywood County, that the latter had "captured a litter of seven 

 wolf pups, three of which were gray and four black." Major Shaw 

 was inclined to believe that the "big gray wolf has always been here 

 and some favorable circumstance must have developed his numbers." 



