MYER] THE FEWKES GROUP 609 
a fragment of bison bone, and only one thing which may possibly, 
but not probably, indicate the existence of bison in this region. In 
a reproduction of an ancient Indian engraved stone slab, found near 
Castalian Springs, in Sumner County, Tenn., and now in the collec- 
tion of the Tennessee Historical Society, appears a very faint design 
in the upper right-hand corner which may possibly represent a bison. 
This design is too weathered and vague to allow of anything more 
definite than a guess as to the animal represented. 
It is a well-known fact that when the early English hunters began 
coming into middle Tennessee about 1770 they found large numbers 
of ‘buffaloes. Referring to these 1770 hunters, Haywood, in his 
“Civil and Political History of Tennessee,” page 90, says that on 
the present site of Nashville “they saw an immense number of 
buffaloes and wild game, more than they had ever seen at any one 
place. The lick and all the adjoining lands were crowded with them. 
Their bellowings resounded from the hills and forests.” On page 94 
of the same book he states that De Mumbrune saw “immense num- 
bers of buffalo and other game” around Nashville in 1775; and that 
he met a party of hunters who had descended the Cumberland 
River. These reported they “had found an incredible number of 
buffaloes; that one of the party * * * had been killed by a 
buffalo.” 
It is known that the wood bison was a comparatively late arrival 
in the country east-of the Mississippi River and south of the Ohio. 
It may be possible that he had not come into the region at the time 
the Fewkes and Gordon groups were inhabited. However, the fol- 
lowing must be considered: The buffalo was harder to kill than the 
deer and more dangerous when wounded. .The absence of buffalo 
bones on the Indian village sites may not be absolute proof of the 
nonexistence of the bison in this region at that time. Mr. Francis 
La Flesche relates that many of the western tribes who lived largely 
upon the buffalo did not carry the bones to camp when it was some 
distance away. They removed what flesh was desired and left the 
bones. The Tennessee Indians may have done the same. Very few 
bison bones have been reported as surface finds anywhere in Tennes- 
see. This probably arises from no careful search having been made 
for them and their close resemblance to the bones of domestic cattle. 
The first printed reference to bison is found in the “‘ Narrative of 
Cabeza de Vaca” (1528-1536), in which it is stated: 
Inland are many deer, birds, and beasts other than those I have spoken of. 
Cattle come as far as here. Three times I have seen them and eaten of their 
meat. I think they are about the size of those in Spain. They have small 
horns like the cows of Morocco; the hair is very long and flocky like the merino’s. 
Some are tawny, others black. To my judgment the flesh is finer and fatter 
than that of this country. Of the skins of those not full grown the Indians 
make blankets, and of the larger they make shoes and bucklers. They come as 
far as the seacoast of Florida from a northerly direction, ranging through a tract 
