SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 327 



of the Bayogoula Indians near the present Bayou Goula below 

 Baton Kouge. (Margry, 1875-86, vol. 4, pp. 169-172; Swanton, 

 1911, pp. 27^276.) The Indians were using "bison bones" (i. e., 

 shoulder blades of bison) as hoes in cultivating their fields, and 

 told their visitors that they went to hunt these animals toward the 

 mouth of the river, a direction opposite to that we would have sup- 

 posed them to take. When Bienville crossed from the Mississippi 

 to the Red in 1700 between Lake St. Joseph and Natchitoches, his 

 party came upon bison just west of the lake and again near the 

 site of the present Winnfield (Margry, 1875-86, vol. 4, pp. 432-439). 

 Penicaut, who may be called the Garcilaso of Louisiana, visited the 

 Pascagoula on the river of that name in 1699 or 1700 and found that 

 they had bison meat and that their beds were covered with the skins 

 of this animal. Some time later, when he ascended the Mississippi 

 with St. Denis, he reports that they killed 23 bison near the Manchac, 

 and his party killed bison, deer, and other animals in considerable 

 quantities about Bay St. Louis (Penicaut, in Margry, 1875-86, vol. 5, 

 pp. 389, 390, 497, 480). There are other references to bison hunting 

 in the neighborhood of Mobile and Pensacola, and Dumont and 

 Du Pratz speak of the hunting of this animal as if in their time it 

 were still pursued by the Natchez. 



The region particularly frequented by them is perhaps indicated in 

 another place: 



Thirty leagues above the River of the Arkansas, to the north and on the 

 same side as this river, one finds that of St. Francis; the surrounding country 

 is always covered vrith herds of bison in spite of the hunting which takes 

 place every winter in these districts; for it is to this river, that is to say 

 the country about it, that the French and the Canadians resort to provide them- 

 selves with salted meat for the inhabitants of the capital and neighboring 

 plantations ; they are assisted by the Arkansas Indians whom they hire for this 

 purpose. (Le Page Du Pratz, 1758, vol. 1, p. 319.) 



On the other hand, Gravier tells us that they were "very scarce" 

 in the Tunica country on Yazoo River when he visited that region 

 in 1700 (Shea, 1861, pp. 135-136; Swanton, 1911, p. 317). 



The evidence at hand seems to indicate that, while there were 

 numerous large herds in the territory now occupied by Kentucky, 

 northeastern Arkansas, and much of Tennessee, and, of course, in the 

 extreme western parts of the Gulf region toward the Plains, and while 

 bison were scattered through the remaining territory to the seaboard, 

 except southern Florida and perhaps parts of the Atlantic coast 

 region, the herds were relatively small in historic times and confined 

 largely to sections remote from towns. 



Aside from the meager reference by Beverley and Dumont's asser- 

 tion that bison were stalked like deer, Du Pratz is the only writer to 

 devote attention to the manner in which this animal was hunted : 



