94 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
the buffalo as follows: “The Buffel, or wild Beef, is one of the largest wild 
Beasts that is yet known in these parts of America; it hath a Bunch upon 
it’s Back, and thick short Horns, bending forward... . This Monster of 
the Woods seldom appears amongst the wropean Inhabitants, it’s chiefest 
haunts being in the Savannas near the Mountains, or Heads of the great 
Rivers... . . And it is conjectur’d, that these Buffelo’s being mix’d, and 
breeding with our tame Cattle, would much improve the Species for largeness 
and Milk; for these Monsters (as I have been inform’d) weigh from 1600 to 
2400 pounds Weight. They are a very fierce Creature, and much larger 
than an Ox... .. There were two of the Calves of this Creature taken 
alive in the Year 1730, by some of the Planters living near Neus River, but 
whether they transported them to Europe, or what other uses they made of 
them, I know not, having occasion to leave that Country soon after.” 2 
Catesby, who visited South Carolina and Georgia some fifty years later, 
describes the buffalo quite minutely in his Natural History of Carolina, pub- 
lished in 1754, showing most unquestionably that he was personally familiar 
with it. He says: “They frequent the remote parts of the country near 
the mountains, and are rarely seen within the settlements. They range in 
droves, feeding in open savannas morning and evening; and in the sultry 
time of the day, they retire to shady rivulets of clear water, glistening 
through thickets of tall cane, which though a hidden retreat, yet their 
heavy bodies causing a deep impression of their feet in the moist land, they 
are often trac’d, and shot by the artful Indians.” + Catesby tells us in his 
preface that he spent the first year of his sojourn in America in Carolina, in 
the settled district near the sea-shore, and passed thence to the “ Upper un- 
inhabited Parts of the Country, and continued at and about Fort Moore, a 
small Fortress on the Banks of the River Savanna, which runs from thence a 
Course of 300 Miles down to the Sea, and is about the same Distance from 
its Source, in the Mountains.” This region, he says, “afforded not only a 
Succession of new vegetable Appearances, but most delightful Prospects 
imaginable, besides the Diversion of Hunting Buffalo’s, Bears, Panthers and 
other wild Beasts.” $ 
Bartram also speaks of the existence of a “Great Buffalo Lick, on the 
Great Ridges which separate the waters of the Savanna and Alatamaha, 
* Natural History of North Carolina, 1737, pp. 107, 108. 
+ Nat. Hist. Carol. Fla., etc., 1754, Vol. I, Appendix, p. xxvii. 
t Ibid., p. viii of preface. 
