298 PIIOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.86 



wrote in his memoirs (Williams, 1927, p. 47) that "nothing more 

 remarkable occurred, unless I mark for such the amazing quantity 

 of buffaloes, bears, deer, and beavers." In another entry in his 

 memoir (Williams, 1927, p. 71) Timberlake wrote on January 2, 

 1762, while residing near the mouth of Tellico River, that "there 

 tire likewise an incredible number of buffaloes." Again after cross- 

 ing the French Broad River enroute to Great Island [Kingsport, 

 Sullivan County] along the Great Path, he wrote on March 15, 

 1762, that 17 or 18 buffaloes ran among the party (Williams, 1927, 

 p. 120). 



The settlers in Carters Valley, Hawkins County, during the win- 

 ter of 1776 killed bison 12 to 15 miles northwest of the settlement 

 (Ramsey, 1853, p. 144). 



From these sources we observe that bison formerly passed over 

 the Cumberland Gap into Tennessee along the Holston, Clinch, and 

 Powell River Valleys. The number of buffalo in eastern Tennessee, 

 judged from the records, was never very large. 



B}' far the larger number of bison occurred in the vicinity of 

 the Cumberland River and its tributaries in middle Tennessee. It 

 will be recalled that French voyageurs had been hunting and trad- 

 ing in that region for more than 75 years before the establishment 

 of the Nashville settlement, killing buffaloes mainly for tongues and 

 tallow, and to a less extent for hides. M. Charloville, a French 

 trader and hunter from Crozat's colony at New Orleans, came upon 

 the Shawnees then inhabiting the Cumberland region and built a 

 post in 1714 on a mound near the present site of Nashville on the 

 west side of the Cumberland River, near French Lick Creek, and 

 about 70 yards from each stream (Ramsey, 1853, p. 45). Subse- 

 quently other French hunters and trappers from Illinois and New 

 Orleans camped in the same region. 



In 1769, Isaac Bledsoe and Kasper Manscoe [sometimes Gasper 

 Mansker] established camp on Station Camp Creek in Sumner 

 County. From that camp each of these men followed in opposite 

 directions the nearby buffalo trail, one finding the salt licks since 

 known as Bledsoes Lick and the other Manscoes Lick. On the 

 100-acre surrounding flat, Bledsoe saw thousands of bison (Hender- 

 son, 1920, p. 125). This lick is now known as Castalian Springs, 

 Sumner County. 



In 1770, Manscoe, Uriah Stone, and eight others hunted at French 

 Lick [Nashville], where they found immense numbers of bison and 

 other wild game (Ramsey, 1853, p. 105). Captain Timothe de 

 Monbreun, a French voyageur from Illinois, who as late as 1823 

 lived at Nashville, hunted in that vicinity in 1775. During that 

 summer Monbreun and one companion had a camp at a site since 



