02 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



Region South of Virginia. — As already remarked, the only well-authenticated 



instances of the occurrence of buffaloes east of the Blue Ridge is the appar- 

 ently casual passage of small bands through the mountains from West Vir- 

 ginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, into the upper parts of North and South Caro- 

 lina, by way of the New, Holston and French Broad Rivers.* Audubon and 

 Bachman state that " the Bison formerly existed in South Carolina, on ihc 

 seorboardj and we are informed," say these authors, " that from the last seen 

 in that State two were killed in the vicinity of Columbia." t But they have 

 neglected to add the date of the capture, or the authority on which the state- 

 ment is made. They state, however, that " La wson speaks of two buffaloes 

 that were killed on Cape Fear River, in North Carolina." Lawson's state- 

 ment in full is as follows: "This day [Sunday, February 1, 1700], the King 

 sent out all his able Hunters, to kill Game for a great Feast, that was to be 



kept at their Departure, from the Town This Evening [same day] 



came down some Tateros, tall, likely Men, having great Plenty of Buffelocs, 

 Elks, and Bears, witli other sort of Deer amongst them." t "The Tc&eros" he 

 says, " a neighboring Nation came down from the Westward Mountains to 

 the Sapona8"\ etc. Lawsoa was now on the " Sapona River," in or near the 

 mountains, || which was apparently one of the sources of the Cape Fear 



from tin' occurrence of the teeth of the bison ami of the walrus, which weir dug out of the hcds at a 

 distance of fifteen feet from the top of the clay, during Sir Charles LyeU's second visit to this country. 

 .... The intermingling of the bones of the walrus and bison in the same beds shows the great range lmth 

 of Arctic ami Temperate forms daring this period." — Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. I. p. 2-43. 



A in 1m- says: "Teeth of the Walrus and the Bison wen- discovered by Sir Charles I.vell in the 



clay-beds of Gardiner, Maine. These are still preserved in a private collection. The association in the 

 glacial clays of the remains of the Bison with those of the Walrus, and the mingling of the arctic animals 

 and plants »ith tho-e now confined to British North America and New England, show that the climate, 

 daring the glacial period, was a little warmer than that of Southern Greenland at present" Am. Nat. 

 Vol I. p, 268, footnote. 



* Gallatin saj a : '■ The gap through which they [the buffaloes] passed to the Atlantic rivers i- undoubt- 

 edly thai of moderate elevation and gentle ascent, which divides a northeastern source of the Roanoke 

 from the great Eenawha, called the New River, ami through which the State of Virginia is now attempt- 

 in,' to open a communication from .lame- River to tin- Ohio." '/Vims. Am. Ethnological s,«-.. Vol. II, 

 p. It 



t Quadrupeds North America, Vol. II. | 



* Hknorj of Carolina, p. 18 ( London, 1718). 

 si li.i.l.. p. i:. 



■ map of North and Sooth Carolina accompanies hit journal, but on the map the word S 

 occur. The context, however, chows that he mi In the northeastern part of the present Mate of 

 North Carolina, on the sources of the Cape Feai B II says, however, in his Natural Hiatorj of 



North •' irolina, published in i r8J : " The Sapona Indians live at the W< it brant b of th<' Capt I 



