226 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



early part of the eighteenth century. That it was not there earlier seems 

 to me fully evident, and that if it was ever found there it must have existed 

 there ai a comparatively recent date and for only a very short period. As 

 already stated (see page 101), I have met with no writer who claims to 

 have himself seen buffaloes within the present limits of Florida, though if 

 it ever occurred there an unquestionable record of the fact will yet doubt- 

 less be found. 



The Buffalo in Mississippi. — On pages 102 and 11-51 state that I had been 

 unable to find any evidence of the former existence of the buffalo south 

 of the Tennessee River, and the statement of Du Pratz that the Indians of 

 Lower Louisiana leave that country in winter to hunt the buffalo is cited in 

 proof of its supposed absence from that region. I)u Prate's statement in full 

 on this point is as follows : •• This buffalo is the chief food of the natives, and of 



the French also for a long time past They hunt this animal in winter; for 



which purpose they leave Lower [<<>i'i*i<tii<i and the river Missisipi, as he can- 

 not penetrate thither on account of the thickness of the woods; and besides 

 loves to feed on long grass, which is only to be found in the meadows of the 

 high lands."* This notice appears in the chapter devoted to an account of 

 the quadrupeds of Louisiana, and being misled by the import of the term 

 Lower Louisiana, which at that time was generally applied to all the Lower 

 Mississippi country, or that portion south of the 35th parallel, and by the 

 fact of the almost unquestionable absence of the buffalo from the country 

 south of the Tennessee at the time De Soto crossed this region in L589 and 

 1540, 1 inadvertently omitted to examine with due care the earlier portions 

 of Du Prate's work. My attention, however, has since been kindly directed 

 (by my friend, .Mr. L. Carr) to other reference by Du Pratz to the buffalo as 



a former inhabitant of a considerable portion of the present State of Mis- 

 sissippi. In his detailed account of the -Lands of Louisiana" Du Prate 

 say-: "From the sources of the river of the Paska OffOV&U, quite to those 



of tic river of Quesoneie, which falls into the Lake St. Louis, the lands are 

 light and sterile, but something gravelly, on account of the neighborhood 



of the mountains, thai lye t<» the North This country is intermix) with 

 extensive hills, line meadows, numbers of thickets, and Bometinies woods. 



• The Elistorj of Louisiana, etc., English Ed., Vol. II, p. 19. The original reads as follow I 



I la viande principal i fall long-tcms aussi cello des Francois On ?aa 



la clin le eel Animal dana Hiyvar, & on s'ecarte de la Basse I isianv&dn Fleuve 8. Louis, parce 



<|n'il nr pcul \ ■ in- do Bois, ,\ que d'ailleurs il airae la grande horbe • | > • i on n 



trouve que dam li - Prnlrici del terras ba ■•■ i/i la /.■»' I am. II. p 67. 



