This bison was very dark in color, many of the old bulls being coal 

 black, with grizzly white hairs around the nose and eyes. The hair 

 was very short with a tendency to crispness or curliness, especially 

 at the joints. The hump, so conspicuous on the western bison was 

 noticeable by its absence. The legs were long, and fore and back legs 

 evenly placed. The heavy front and meager hind quarters of the 

 western bison were not present — in other words the Pennsylvania bison 

 was a beautifully proportioned animal. The hair on the neck and 

 shoulders were no longer than on other parts of the body except with 

 mature bulls, who carried a sort of mane or crest which reached its 

 maximum length Avhere the hump grows on the prairie buffalo. Both 

 males and females wore beards, but they were not heavy, and consisted 

 of straight, stiff black hair. The horns which in many specimens 

 were very long, grew upward like the horns of Ayrshire cattle, and 

 were much like the horns of the European bison." 



As it is recorded that the early settlers of Virginia obtained 

 their first crosses from the wild calves brought in by their dogs, it 

 would indicate that these calves were from this type of buffalo, as 

 the herds from which these calves were obtained, must have been 

 ranging at no great distance from the settlements. 



A description of a descendant from one of these early crosses is 

 given in a letter from Mr. William E. Connelly, Secretary of the 

 Kansas State Historical Society, dated February 18, 1918, in which 

 he said, "I want to mention a breed of cattle that formerly existed in 

 eastern Kentucky. I was born and brought up in Johnson County, 

 Kentucky. My " great-grandfather, Henry Connelly, was a Captain 

 of Cavalry in the Eevolution in North Carolina. 



He moved from North Carolina to :Montgomery County, Virginia, 

 and from that place to the Big Sandy Valley, arriving in Johnson 

 Countv in 1810. There came with him Peter Mankins, who settled 

 at the mouth of Miller's Creek on the Big Sandy Eiver, about three 

 miles above Paintsville. Mankins died in Washington County, Arkan- 

 sas in 1882, age 113 years. He was born on the site of Washington 

 City, D. C, before there was any Washington City there. He was 

 a most remarkable man. He was fond of horses and cattle and had 

 the best breeds of any one in the country. He had a breed of cattle 

 which he claimed, and which the old settlers claimed, Avere from 

 buffalo. He brought these cattle from Montgomery County, Virginia, 

 as I have heard the old people say. My grandfather had some of 

 these cattle. I remember only one., a cow, but it had something of 

 the form of the Goodnight catalo. I think it had not so marked a 

 hump or elevation at the shoulders. In the winter there developed 

 long hair on the front part of the body. They had curved horns and 

 the horns were almost solid black, and they always had black hoofs. 

 The one that I remember as belonging to my grandfather was a white 

 cow but she had spots of black and brown through her hair, which 

 was mottled like black through white marble. This of course, is from 

 my own recollections and no evidence that they were from buffalo, 

 but the old people always said so." 



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