378 R PORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



tion of the bison in the various portions of its former habitat, it is yet 

 worth while to sketch briefly the extreme limits of its range. In doing 

 this, our starting point will be the Atlantic slope east of the Allegha- 

 nies, and the reader will do well to refer to the large map. 



District of Columbia. — There is no indisputable evidence that 

 the bison ever inhabited this precise locality, but it is probable that it 

 did. In 1612 Captain Argoli sailed up the " Pembrook Eiver n to the 

 head of navigation (Mr. Allen believes this was the James Eiver, and 

 not the Potomac) and marched inland a few miles, where he discovered 

 buffaloes, some of which were killed by his Indian guides. If this 

 river was the Potomac, and most authorities believe that it was, the 

 buffaloes seen by Captain Argoli might easily have been in what is now 

 the District of Columbia. 



Admitting the existence of a reasonable doubt as to the identity of 

 the Pembrook Eiver of Captain Argoli, there is yet another bit of his- 

 tory which fairly establishes the fact that in the early part of the sev- 

 enteenth century buffaloes inhabited the banks of the Potomac between 

 this city and the lower falls. In 1624 an English fur trader named 

 Henry Fleet came hither to trade with the Anacostian Indians, who 

 then inhabited the present site of the city of Washington, and with 

 the tribes of the Upper Potomac. In his journal (discovered a few 

 years since in the Lambeth Library, London) Fleet gave a quaint 

 description of the city's site as it then appeared. The following is from 

 the explorer's journal : 



• " Monday, the 25th June, we set sail for the town of Tohoga, where 

 we came to an anchor 2 leagues short of the falls. * * * This 

 place, without question, is the most pleasant and healthful place in all 

 this country, and most convenient for habitation, the air temperate in 

 summer and not violent in winter. It aboundeth with all manner of 

 fish. The Indians in one night commonly will catch thirty sturgeons 

 in a place where the river is not above 12 fathoms broad, and as for deer, 

 buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the woods do swarm with them. * * * 

 The 27th of June I manned my shallop and went up with the flood, the 

 tide rising about 4 feet at this place. We had not rowed above 3 miles, 

 but we might hear the falls to roar about 6 miles distant."* 



Maryland. — There is no evidence that the bison ever inhabited 

 Maryland, except what has already been adduced with reference to the 

 District of Columbia. If either of the references quoted may be taken 

 as conclusive proof, and I see no reason for disputing either, then the 

 fact that the bison once ranged northward from Virginia into Maryland 

 is fairly established. There is reason to expect that fossil remains of 

 Bison americanus will yet be found both in Maryland and the District 

 of Columbia, and I venture to predict that this will yet occur. 



Virginia. — Of the numerous references to the occurrence of the bison 

 in Virginia, it is sufficient to allude to Col. William Byrd's meetings 



* Charles Burr Todd's " Story of Washington, p. 18. New York, 1889. 





