228 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



On one of his accompanying maps this region is marked as "Terres 

 Hautes," while the low country, or " drowned lands," of the present Lower 

 Louisiana is marked " Terrea Plates."' Hence, when in his later description 

 of the buffalo he speaks of the Indians leaving "Lower Louisiana" to hunt 

 the buffalo, lie simply means that they leave the low flat country immediately 

 bordering the coast and the river, especially the low country south and west 

 of Baton Rouge, to hunt in the higher lands of the present State of Mis- 

 sissippi, where, if we take Du Pratz as trustworthy authority, the buffalo 

 must, at that time (about 1720 and later), have been abundant. Yet when 

 this very region was crossed by De .Soto, two hundred years earlier, the 

 buffalo was evidently not to be found there. It hence appears to have 

 spread in the mean time from the region more to the northward. West of 

 the Mississippi, also, the buffalo, in Du Pratz's time, extended southward over 

 regions where it was not met with by De Soto or by La Salle, which affords 

 further evidence that the buffalo extended its range considerably to the 

 southward and eastward in the valley of the Lower Mississippi between 

 1540 and 1720, or even between 1685 and the latter date, as seems to have 

 been also the case in South Carolina and Georgia. 



It hence appears evident that at one time the buffalo occupied probably 

 mosl of the region between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. On 

 Du Pratz's map. however, the course of the Tennessee is very incorrectly 

 laid down, as it is also on the earlier map of De l'lsle. and on maps pub- 

 lished much later even than Du Pratz's, its southern bend on Du Pratz's 

 map not reaching the 36th parallel, while it actually crosses the 33d. lie 

 seems not to have himself passed above the Chickasaw Bluffs, and his 

 knowledge of the country beyond on the easl side of the river was evidently 

 very vague. 



The presence of "Boeufe" in the country drained by the Mobile Liver is 

 also mentioned by "// Officierde Marine, in a letter published with Chevalier de 

 Tonti'e - Relation " * (the authorship of which work, however. Tonti disowns >. 



The presence of a creek in Southwestern Mississippi still hearing 'he name 

 of "Buffalo Creek" maa lie considered :i^ further evidence of the former 

 existence of the buffalc in this region. 



It is t" he regretted that Adair, who spent many years i L735 to L767) as 

 a trader and government official among the tribes south of the Tennessee 

 River, has left so little on record respecting the range of the buffalo at that 



• Relation •!> I.i Louiilanm . I . SO, \ ••!- I, p 1 1. 



