300 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.86 



the Lick where we found there had been great slaughter made 

 amongst the buffelow ; we had not been there long before we saw two 

 big buffelow bulls coming toward us accompanyed with a wolf." 

 Again on August 7, 1784, John Lipscomb's party (Williams, 1928, 

 p. 278) reached Red River Station, and then traveled through the 

 barrens, where they saw a "gang of buffaloes" [Sumner Coimty]. 



After leaving Nashville on December 28, 1785, enroute to Holston 

 River, Lewis Brantz (Williams, 1928, p. 286) traveled with a pack 

 horse 140 miles through the barrens where nothing but grass grows. 

 Brantz remarked that the buffaloes had been considerably hunted by 

 the woodsmen and were diminished in number. The fii-st records of 

 Sumner County show that "prime buffalo beef" was accepted for 

 taxes in 1787 at 3 pence a pound, if delivered where troops were sta- 

 tioned (Putnam, 1859, p. 252). Bisou apparently were still to be 

 found in Montgomery County in 1793. Goodpasture (1903, p. 206) 

 has published a contract signed October 4, 1793, by John Dier for 

 delivery of 35 hundredweight of buffalo beef to John Edmonson, at 

 $2 a hundred. 



Andre Michaux (Williams, 1928, p. 335) listed buffaloes as being 

 present in June 1795 in the region around Nashville. Abraham 

 Steiner and Christian Frederic de Schweinitz in December 1799 re- 

 ported that bison were still present near the Caney Fork Road [Put- 

 nam County] but were "rarely killed by the hunters, as they are shy 

 and fleet and do not usually fall at the tiist shot" (Williams, 1928, 

 p. 519). Writing in 1859, iPutnara (p. 127) stated that a woodland 

 tract of several hundred acres at Belle Meade [Dunhams Station] 

 belonging to Gen. William G. Harding was stocked at that time with 

 200 deer, 20 buffaloes, and half a dozen elk. In 1916 Clarence B. 

 Moore excavated a left metacarpal (3 + 4) and two ])halanges (U.S. 

 N.M. no. 216652) from a mound at Hales Point, Lauderdale County. 



Wliile collecting in Tennessee, Rhoads (1896, p. 179) received in- 

 formation from local residents that the last buffalo in Fentress 

 County was killed by John Young, but the date was not obtained. 



Bison were once present in some numbers in western Tennessee 

 along the Mississippi River. From the journal of Diron d'Arta- 

 guette, inspector-general under the Duke of Orleans, we get our 

 first information as to the former presence of great herds of bison 

 in west Tennessee. Traveling up the Mississippi River in March 

 1723, he saw bison at many places on both sides of the river. It is 

 recorded in his journal (Williams, 1930, p. 10) that a buffalo cow 

 was killed near Wolf River, Shelby County. As he continued on 

 this journey upstream, many buffalo were killed before he passed 

 the present boundaries of Tennessee. 



