86 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
nesse.” * Purchas also says, in his “ Virgimas Verger, or Discourse on Vir- 
ginia,” in enumerating the animals of Virginia, “I might adde Shag-haired 
oxen, seen by Sir Samuel Argoll.” 
The “Pembrook,” or “Penbrooke” mentioned in Argoll’s account has 
generally been considered as the “ Patowomeck,” or one of its affluents, 
but it was, I think, unquestionably the James.¢ The region visited by 
Captain Batt must have also been somewhere on the head-waters of the 
James. There is still traditional evidence that buffaloes formerly passed 
eastward from the head-waters of the Great Kanawha in West Virginia to 
this region. Professor Shaler, being aware of the existence of such names 
as “Buffalo Springs” and “Buffalo Ford,” in the region of Amherst, Bath, 
and Pocahontas Counties, Virginia, has made successful effort to ascer- 
tain whether they indicated the former presence there of buffaloes. In 
answer to his inquiries respecting the matter, Mr. C. W. Pritchett has 
kindly sent him the following important information. Mr. Pritchett says 
that the “old men” of that country affirm “that the Buffalo Springs were 
so named from a Salt Lick near by of that name, to which their fathers 
were guided by the buffalo trails. The tradition is abundant and easily 
verified, that buffalo and elk were numerous in that part of Virginia within 
a period comparatively recent. These traditions are especially abundant 
in Bath and Pocahontas Counties, lying between the Blue Ridge and the 
Alleghanies. On the Cow Pasture River (which with the Jackson forms the 
James), in Bath County, a few miles below the Blowing Cave and Walla- 
whatoola Springs (Indian name for Crooked River), is a salt lick, near which 
they still show the deep-worn trail of the buffalo, at the point where they 
crossed the river, still called Buffalo Ford. . . . . There are men still living 
there whose fathers and grandfathers saw the buffalo, and even, im one 
instance, caught and domesticated them.” In corroboration of the above 
* Purchas, Vol. IV, p. 1765. 
+ The “Patowomeck” mentioned by Argoll (or Argall) is evidently the Indian chief of that name, 
and not the river “Patowomeck.” Purchas, in his marginal notes to Argoll’s letter, says, “ His first 
Voyage to Patawomee and Penbrooke River,” not Rivers; and again, “ The second voyage to Penbrooke 
River.” Argoll himself speaks of going to “fetch Corne from Patowomeck,” for which purpose he “en- 
tered into Pembrooke River,” and after obtaining his cargo of corn he “hasted to James Towne,” and 
later arrived at Point Comfort. After distributing the corn he returned again “into Pembrook River,” 
and made the discovery of a “great store of Cattle as big as Kine.” Whilst engaged “in this business ” 
he conceived the idea of going to the “ great King Patowomeck” for the purpose of obtaining possession 
by “stratagem” of the “ Great Powhatans Daughter Pokahuntis.” 
t+ Letter to Professor Shaler, dated Glasgow, Mo., July 31, 1875. 
