WEST VIRGINIA MAMMALS — KELLOGG 475 



of March 6, 1752, that a herd of 30 elk were seen near a cave on 

 Neemokeesy [= Fishing] Creek in Wood County and that one was 

 shot. According to Kercheval (1833, p. 265) elk were plentiful in 

 1763 in the vicinity of Muddy Creek and Big Levels settlements in 

 Greenbrier County. Three elk were killed that year by Archibald 

 Glendennin for an Indian feast, following which the settlers were 

 massacred. Withers (1831, p. 168) writes that elk were killed in 1777 

 on the Little Kanawha River. Early settlers shot elk in Harrison 

 County along Hackers Creek near West Milford on West Fork River 

 and also in the mountains of Randolph County (McWhorter, 1915, 

 pp. 80, 81). According to Hale (1886, p. 62), the last elk was killed 

 in Kanawha Valley in 1820 on Two Mile Creek, Elk River, about 5}^ 

 miles northeast of Charleston. 



Between 1830 and 1835, elk were killed at a deer lick near "The 

 Sinks" on Gandy Creek, a branch of the Dry Fork of Cheat River, 

 Randolph County (Maxwell, 1898, p. 299). Three elk were killed on 

 the Black Fork of Cheat River near Davis, Tucker County, in 1843 

 (Maxwell, 1898, p. 299). During 1845, seven elk were seen near 

 Durbin, Pocahontas County (Brooks, 1911, p. 12). According to 

 McWhorter (1915, p. 382) elk were last seen in Canaan Valley, Tucker 

 County, about the time of the Civil War. McWhorter (1915, p. 382) 

 states that an elk was lulled in 1867 at Elk Lick on Middle River, 

 Pocahontas County, and that tracks of elk were seen near the head- 

 waters of Cheat River not later than 1873. 



The few elk now at large on the ridges in the eastern part of the 

 State escaped 10 or 15 years ago from an enclosure near Marlinton, 

 Pocahontas County, belonging to the Allegheny Sportsmen's Associa- 

 tion (Brooks, 1929, p. 538). 



Family BOVIDAE 



BISON BISON PENNSYLVANICUS Shoemaker 



Eastern Woodland Bison 



Although bison were abundant in West Virginia as late as 1780, it 

 is rather surprising that only incidental reference is made to their 

 presence in the journals and accounts left by explorers, hunters, and 

 early settlers. The earliest record of bison within the present hmits 

 of West Virginia appears to be found in the account of an exploring 

 expedition (Bushnell, 1907, p. 46; Alvord and Bidgood, 1912, pp. 

 183-205) that left the Virginia settlements near where Petersburg 

 now stands on September 1, 1671. Thomas Batts, Thomas Wood, 

 and Robert Fallam, who had been commissioned by Maj. Gen. 

 Abraham Wood under authority of Governor Sir William Berkeley 

 to explore the country to the west of the Virginia settlements, were 

 accompanied by a servant, Jack Wcsason, and eight Appomattox 



