

86 



THE AMEEICAI^ BIS0:NS. 



nesse. 



" * 



Purchas also says, in his " Virginias Yerger, or Discourse on Vir- 

 inia," 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, f The region visited 

 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 Shalor, being aware of the existence of such names 

 as ^^ Buffalo Springs" and "Buffalo Ford," in the region of Amherst, Bath, 



Pocahontas Counties 



Virginia 



J 



has made successful effort to ascer- 



were 



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 afl&rm ^Hhat the Buffixlo Springs were 

 so named from a Salt Lick near by of that name, to which their fathers 



uided 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 

 AUeghanies. 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, in one 

 instance, caught and domesticated them." 1: In corroboration of the above 



* Purclias, Vol. IV, p. 1765: 



t The " Patowomeck " mentioned by Argoll (or Argall) is evidently the Indian chief of that name, 

 and not the river *' Patowomeclc." Purchas, in his marginal notes to Argoll's letter, says, "His first 

 Voyage to Patawomec and Penbrooke River," not Rivers ; and again, "The second yoy^ge to Penhr oak e 

 River." Argoll himself speaks of going to "fetch Corne from Pa^o;6-omec^," for which purpose he "en- 

 tered into Pemhrooke 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 Pemhrook 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 Pokahuntisr 



% Letter to Professor Shaler, dated Glasgow, Mo., July 31, 1875. 



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mi 



r. -411*4,- 



