720 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
‘be substantiated beyond question. Surgeon J. Simpson, U. S. A., 
who was well acquainted with Nathan Boone (son of Daniel Boone 
the pioneer, and then a captain in the service*), informs me that 
he had the fact, in 1843, from Nathan Boone himself, who killed 
Buffalo in Virginia in 1793-97-98. 
Dr. Simpson has handed me a letter addressed to him by Dr. 
Charles McCormick, Surgeon U. S. A., dated Fort Gibson, Chero- 
kee Nation, August 18th, 1844, in which the particulars are given. 
The occasion for that part of the letter which relates to the buffalo 
arose in this way :— An officer to whom Dr. Simpson mentioned 
Capt. Boone’s statements being inclined to doubt them, Dr. Simp- 
son wrote to Dr. McCormick, desiring the latter to ask Capt. 
Boone, who was then at Fort Gibson, to put the facts in writing. 
This, it seems, Capt. Boone promised to do, but neglected to keep 
his promise, owing, probably, to the singular indisposition of men 
of his class to put anything on paper. The following extract, 
however, from the letter in question, is sufficient : — 
“I have just seen Capt. Boone,” writes Dr. McCormick, ‘‘ and 
he promises to write and tell you all about it. In the meantime, 
he says he killed al first buffalo, somewhere about 1793, on the’ 
Kenawha in Virginia. He was then quite a small boy. He has 
also killed butilo. on New River and near the Big Sandy in Vir- 
ginia in ’97 and ’9 
I have thought best to be thus circumstantial in detail of per- 
sons, places and dates, in order to fix precisely an important item 
in the natural history of our country. But this occurrence of the 
buffalo in Virginia is only of a part with its general former range, 
as attested by accounts of other observers. — ELLIOTT Coves, Fort 
McHenry, Md. 
Lasp Suetis or Western Massacnuserrs.—In Vol. I, of the 
NatvRAList, was published a paper on the ‘Land-Snails of New 
England.” During the following summer I was myself engaged 
in making a small collection of the land-snails found at West 
Stockbridge, Berkshire Co., Mass., and to my surprise, many of 
my results were directly at variance with those given by Mr. Morse 
in the above-mentioned article. The reason for this difference was 
Se anne TO En 
ee of Rangers, 23 March, 1812; out of service to June 16, 1832; then made 
aptain of Mounted Rangers; Lieutenant Colonel, 2d U. S. Dragoons, July 25, 1850, 
and until death at Springfield Illinois, July 15, 1853. 
