THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 375 



tawny, and resemble our calves ; but as age increases they change color 

 and form. 



"Another thing which struck us was that all the old buffaloes that we 

 killed had the left ear cloven, while it was entire in the young ; we could 

 never discover the reason of this. 



" Their wool is so fine that handsome clothes would certainly be made 

 of it, but it can not be dyed for it is tawny red. "We were much sur- 

 prised at sometimes meeting innumerable herds of bulls without a single 

 cow, and other herds of cows without bulls." 



Neither De Soto, Ponce de Leon, Yasquez de Ayllon, nor Pamphilo 

 de Karvaez ever saw a buffalo, for the reason that all their explorations 

 were made south of what was then the habitat of that animal. At the 

 time De Soto made his great exploration from Florida northwestward 

 to the Mississippi and into Arkansas (1539-'41) he did indeed pass 

 through country in northern Mississippi and Louisiana that was after- 

 ward inhabited by the buffalo, but at that time not one was to be found 

 there. Some of his soldiers, however, who were sent into the northern 

 part of Arkansas, reported having seen buffalo skins in the possession 

 of the Indians, and were told that live buffaloes were to be found 5 or 6 

 leagues north of their farthest point. 



The earliest discovery of the bison in Eastern North America, or in- 

 deed anywhere north of Coronado's route, was made somewhere near 

 Washington, District of Columbia, in 1612, by an English navigator 

 named Samuell Argoll,* and narrated as follows : 



"As soon as I had unladen this corne, I set my men to the felling of 

 Timber, for the building of a Frigat, which I had left half finished at 

 Point Comfort, the 19. of March : and returned myself with the ship 

 into Pembrook [Potomac] Eiver, and so discovered to the head of it, 

 which is about 65. leagues into the Land, and navigable for any ship. 

 And then marching into the Countrie, I found great store of Cattle as 

 big as Kine, of which the Indians that were my guides killed a couple, 

 which we found to be very good and wholesome meate, and are very 

 easie to be killed, in regard they are heavy, slow, and not so wild as 

 other beasts of the wildernesse." 



It is to be regretted that the narrative of the explorer affords no clew 

 to the precise locality of this interesting discovery, but since it is doubtful 

 that the mariner journeyed very far on foot from the head of navigation 

 of the Potomac, it seems highly probable that the first American bison 

 seen by Europeans, other than the Spaniards, was found within 15 miles, 

 or even less, of the capital of the United States, and possibly within the 

 District of Columbia itself. 



The first meeting of the white man with the buffalo on the northern 

 boundary of that animal's habitat occurred in 1679, when Father Hen- 



* Purchas : His Pilgrimes. (1625.) Vol. iv, p. 1765. "A letter of Sir Samuel Ar- 

 goll touching his Voyage to Virginia, and actions there. Written to Master Nicholas 

 Hawes, June, 1613." 



