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110 



THE AMEEICAIT EISONS. 



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. 



a 



The simple history of this spring," he adds, '^is 



of every other in 



Weste 



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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- 

 in «-, proves that they had spread thus far eastwardly when that country 

 was first visited by the Anglo-Americans." J 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 eariiest references to the existence of 



buffalo in West 



Virginia is that contained in the journal of the Eev. Daniel Jones, who in 



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1772 made a journey to the Indian tribes west of the Ohio Eiver. Under 

 date of June 18, 1772, he writes: "Went out to view the land on east side 



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[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, 177 



(C 



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 



V 



abundance of buffalo, which are a species of cattle, as some suppose, left 



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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 Kivcrs Alle- 

 ghany, Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi, etc. pp. 47-49. London, 1808. 



t Warden (D. B.), Statistical, Political and Historical Account of the United States, Vol. I, p. 250. 



J Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc, Yol. IT, p. L 

 § Journal of Two Visits, etc., p. 17, 

 Ibid., pp. 30, 84. 



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