110 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 
instantly to the wilderness in an unusual run, without tasting their favorite 
spring, or licking the impregnated earth, which was also once their most 
agreeable occupation; nor did they, nor any of their race, ever revisit the 
neighborhood. 
“The simple history of this spring,” he adds, “is that of every other in 
the settled parts of this Western world; the carnage of beasts was. every- 
where the same; I met with a man who had killed two thousand buffaloes 
with his own hand; and others, no doubt, have done the same. In conse- 
quence of such proceedings, not one buffalo is at this time [in 1806] to | 
be found east of the Mississippi, except a few, domesticated by the curious, 
or carried through the country on a public show.” * 
Warden also refers to the former existence of buffaloes in the western 
part of Pennsylvania, and to their early extinction there and in Kentucky. 
Gallatin says: “The name of Buffalo Creek, between Pittsburg and Wheel- 
ing, proves that they had spread thus far eastwardly when that country 
was first visited by the Anglo-Americans.”$ Further to the southward, in 
West Virginia, in the valleys of the Kanawha and its tributaries, as well as 
thence westward, the former abundance of the buffalo is well attested. 
One of the earliest references to the existence of the buffalo in West 
Virginia is that contained in the journal of the Rev. Daniel Jones, who in 
1772 made a journey to the Indian tribes west of the Ohio River. Under 
date of June 18, 1772, he writes: “Went out to view the land on east side 
[of the Little Kanawha] to kill provisions. Mr. Owens killed several 
deer and a stately buffalo bull. The country is here level, and the soil not 
despicable.”§ In speaking of that part of the valley of the Ohio near the 
mouth of the “Great Guiandot,” he says, under date of January, 1773: 
“In this part of the country even in this season, pasturage is so good 
that creatures are well supplied without any assistance. Here are great 
abundance of buffalo, which are a species of cattle, as some suppose, left 
here by former inhabitants.” In describing the country about Wheeling 
(“Weeling”), he says: “The wild beasts met with here are bears, wolves, 
panthers, wild cats, foxes, raccoons, beavers, otters, and some few squirrels 
and rabbits; buffaloes, deer, and elks, called by the Delawares moos.” || 
* Ashe (Thomas), Travels in America, performed in 1806, for the purpose of exploring the Rivers Alle- 
ghany, Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi, etc. pp. 47-49. London, 1808. 
{ Warden (D. B.), Statistical, Political and Historical Account of the United States, Vol. I, p. 250. 
} Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc., Vol. II, p. 1. 
§ Jounal of Two Visits, ete., p. 17. 
|| Ibid., pp. 30, 84. 
_Snaeaemenrernnettanesiionsaset 
