62 pioneer life; ok, 



drove four crotches into the ground, upon which 

 they placed poles, and across these they laid pieces 

 of bark. In this manner they avoided sleeping on 

 the ground. In summer they always kept a fire 

 around the place where they slept, to protect them- 

 selves while asleep. I asked Cornplanter where 

 lie thought the bears, elk, deer and panthers were 

 the most plenty thirty years previous. He answered 

 that in the year 1786 he found the deer more plenty 

 from the State line to Red Bank, and about twelve 

 miles back from the river, than they were on Pine 

 Creek. But he thought bears were not as plenty, 

 and that panthers were quite numerous on Kenzua 

 Creek and the Tionesta and the country between the 

 head waters of those streams and the Susquehannah 

 river. Elk, he said were not as plenty on the Alle. 

 gany as they were on Pine Creek ; and beaver, otter, 

 and other animals valuable for their fur, he had 

 found more abundant on the Susquehannah than on 

 the Allegany. Bears were found in great numbers 

 from the mouth of Conewango Creek to Chau- 

 tauque Lake. They had a crossing place where they 

 passed from the head waters of the Tionesta to the 

 lake. He said his two sons, Henry and John 

 O'Bayle, killed in one summer, fifteen bears on the 

 banks of Chautauque Lake. 



Soon after our conversation I again saw Corn- 

 planter and he told me that he had learned, by a 

 letter from the Presbyterian Society of Pittsburgh, 

 that they intended to send a preacher to establish a 

 school at Cornplanter's Town, and he asked me to 



