6 Bulletin 1, Biological Society of Washington, 1918. 



included in the District. The pine marten is not usually 

 recognized as a member of the District Fauna, but accord- 

 ing to Wm. Palmer, there is a fairly certain record as late 

 as about 1880; Smith's statement therefore probably is 

 correct. 



Larger game is mentioned by the next contributor to the 

 natural history of the District, an account of whose expe- 

 rience is quoted from Wm. T. Hornaday : 



"The earliest discovery of the bison in Eastern North 

 America, or indeed anywhere north of Coronado's route, was 

 made somewhere near Washington, District of Columbia, in 

 1612, by an English navigator named Samuell Argoll, 4 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 Pem- 

 brook [Potomac] Kiver, 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 dis- 

 covery, 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." 5 



An inducement for the early explorers to visit our region 

 was the considerable Indian population. The country about 

 the juncture of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, especially, 



<Purchas: His Pilgrimes. (1625), Vol. IV, p. 1765. "A letter of Sir 

 Samuel Argoll touching his Voyage to Virginia, and actions there. Writ- 

 ten to Master Nicholas Hawes, June, 1613." 



6 Hornaday, Wm. T. The Extermination of the American Bison. Rep. 

 U. S. Nat. Museum. 1886-7, (1889), p. 375. 



