98 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
of many of the hunting-camps of the savages. We found the footsteps of six 
or eight buffaloes hereabouts, so plain as to be convinced of the track being 
made by those animals.”* Professor Baird, in 1852, says, “Theuet, in the 
very rare work entitled ‘Les Singularitez de la France antarctique, Paris, 
1557 [1558], gives (p. 147), in a representation of a curious beast of West 
Florida, a readily recognizable figure of the buffalo.”+ The figure bears 
some resemblance to a bison, and the description seems to clearly indicate 
this animal. The locality, too, is near Palm River, south of Tampa Bay. 
Thevet’s work, however, is merely a compilation, abounding with the gross- 
est exaggerations. He cites no authority for the presence of “une espece de 
grands toureaux” at this locality, where certainly no bison has ever been 
found. Maynard, writing in 1872, says, “The historians of De Soto’s travels 
speak of herds of wild cattle being found in Florida. They probably refer 
to the buffalo (Bos americanus), which without doubt extended its range to 
the prairies of the west coast.’ None of the references to the buffalo 
contained in these writings relate, however, to the present region of Flor- 
ida,§ De Soto not apparently hearing of the existence of this animal until 
he had reached the Mississippi, except in the single instance soon to be 
noticed in another connection. 
The late Professor Wyman, in a posthumous paper, also says, “The buffalo 
was an inhabitant of Florida, and it could have been no other than this ani- 
mal which the French met with in their ill-fated retreat from Fort Carohne”; 
and he adds in a footnote : “De Challeux, the carpenter of Ribaut’s expedi- 
tion, says, ‘near the break of day we saw a great beast, like a deer, at fifty 
paces from us, who had a great head, eyes flaming, the ears hanging, and 
the huger parts elevated. It seemed to us monstrous because of its gleam- 
ing eyes, wonderfully large, but it did not come near us to do us any harm.’ 
There is no other animal,” adds Professor Wyman, “ which corresponds with 
this animal but the buffalo, though that animal is as unlike ‘a deer’ as pos- 
sible.”|| It seems to me, however, that the reference is in no way applicable 
to the buffalo, and if not really a deer, the beast here described must have 
* A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida, pp. 280, 281, 
+ Patent Off. Rep., Agricult., 1851-52, Part IJ, p. 124. 
{ Bull. Essex Institute, Vol IV, p. 149. 
§ Schooleraft says that the distinction between the former and present boundaries of Florida “is over- 
looked, in reference to the buffalo in Florida, by the translator of De Soto’s first letter.” — History, Con- 
dition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, etc., Part V, p. 68, footnote. 
|| Fresh-Water Shell Mounds of the St. John’s River, Florida, p. 80, and footnote, December, 1875. 
