I 



/ 



94 



THE AMEEICAE" BIS0:N"S. 



the buffalo as follows : " The Buff eh, 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 forw^ard This Monster of 



the Woods seldom appears amongst the European Inhabitants, it's chiefest 

 haunts beint^ in the 8avannas 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 Neiis 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. 



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 

 wath 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 

 throuo-h thickets of tall cane, which though a hidden retreat, yet their 



" # 



i-i 



heavy bodies causing a deep impression of their feet in the moist land, they 

 are often trac'd, and shot by the artful ludiansr f 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." X 



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. 



t Nat. Hist. Carol., Fla., etc., 1754, Vol. I, Appendix, p. xxvii 



{ Ibid., p. viii of preface. 



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