73 
And again: 
‘Thirty leagues up the river (Maumee) is a place called La Glaise (now Defiance, 
Ohio), where buffaloes are always to be found; they eat the clay and wallow in it.” 
The eastern limit along the Lakes was probably in Western New York, 
in the locality of Buffalo Creek, which empties into Lake Erie. There 
are, however, doubtful allusions in earlier writings of its occurrence 
along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. 
There is ample evidence of the former existence and abundance of the 
Buffalo in Northern Ohio; it occurred in other parts of the State. Colonel 
John May met with it on the Muskingum in 1788, and Atwater says 
““we had once the bison and the elk in vast numbers all over Ohio.” 
Hutchins says that in the natural meadows, or savannahs, “from twenty 
to fifty miles in circuit,’ from the mouth of the Kanawha far down the 
Ohio the herds of Buffalo and Deer were innumerable, as also in the region 
drained by the Scioto. 
Mr. George Graham, writing Mr. Allen, under date of “Cincinnati, 
April 11, 1876,” states : 
“That the last reliable killing of buffalo is taken from the Lacross manuscripts, and 
partly from tradition from the lips of the children and grandchildren of those who 
were present. Of the French who settled at Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1790, but one person 
ever killed a buffalo. This man’s name was Duteil. He was out hunting in the summer 
of 1795, about two miles west from Gallipolis, and saw a herd of buffalo. He fired with- 
out aiming at any particular one, and luckily killed a large one. He was so elated with 
this feat that, without stopping to examine the animal, he ran as fast as he could to the 
town, and, having announced his luck, came back followed by the entire body of colon- 
ists, men, women, and children. They quickly formed a procession, with musicians 
playing violins, flutes, and haut-boys in front of the fortunate hunter, proudly marching 
with his gun on his shoulder, and the animal swinging from poles thrust through between 
his tied feet, followed by the crowd, singing and rejoicing at the prospect of good and 
hearty fare. 
‘* The animal was quickly skinned and dressed on its arrival at the town, and for sev- 
eral days there was feasting, as the first and last buffalo of Gallipolis was served up in 
such a variety of ways and means as none but the French could devise; Charles Francis 
Duiteil remaining until his death the renowned marksman who killed the first and last 
buffalo, of al! the emigrants from France, who settled the town of Gallipolis.” 
In a later communication to Mr. Allen, Mr. Graham adds: 
‘From all that I know of the early settlement and history of the West, I am under 
the impression that the buffalo disappeared from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky 
about the year 1800.” 
Haterpation of the Bison.—The Buffalo was not driven to the westward 
by the encroachments of settlements; a few herds may have migrated, 
but it is more probable it was exterminated, rather than driven from the 
central States. 
