The Extermination of the American Bison — John Shaqi
The Extermination of the American BisonHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
The Extermination of the American Bison
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
American bison; Wildlife conservation -- United States -- Sources
VIRGINIA.--Of the numerous references to the occurrence of the bison in
Virginia, it is sufficient to allude to Col. William Byrd's meetings
with buffaloes in 1620, while surveying the southern boundary of the
State, about 155 miles from the coast, as already quoted; the references
to the discovery of buffaloes on the eastern side of the Virginia
mountains, quoted by Mr. Allen from Salmon's "Present State of
Virginia," page 14 (London, 1737), and the capture _and domestication_
of buffaloes in 1701 by the Huguenot settlers at Manikintown, which was
situated on the James River, about 14 miles above Richmond. Apparently,
buffaloes were more numerous in Virginia than in any other of the
Atlantic States.
NORTH CAROLINA.--Colonel Byrd's discoveries along the interstate
boundary between Virginia and North Carolina fixes the presence of the
bison in the northern part of the latter State at the date of the
survey. The following letter to Prof. G. Brown Goode, dated Birdsnest
post-office, Va., August 6, 1888, from Mr. C. R. Moore, furnishes
reliable evidence of the presence of the buffalo at another point in
North Carolina: "In the winter of 1857 I was staying for the night at
the house of an old gentleman named Houston. I should judge he was
seventy then. He lived near Buffalo Ford, on the Catawba River, about 4
miles from Statesville, N. C. I asked him how the ford got its name. He
told me that his grandfather told him that when he was a boy the buffalo
crossed there, and that when the rocks in the river were bare they would
eat the moss that grew upon them." The point indicated is in longitude
81° west and the date not far from 1750.
SOUTH CAROLINA.--Professor Allen cites numerous authorities, whose
observations furnish abundant evidence of the existence of the buffalo
in South Carolina during the first half of the eighteenth century. From
these it is quite evident that in the northwestern half of the State
buffaloes were once fairly numerous. Keating declares, on the authority
of Colhoun, "and we know that some of those who first settled the
Abbeville district in South Carolina, in 1756, found the buffalo
there."[8] This appears to be the only definite locality in which the
presence of the species was recorded.
[Note 8: Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, 1823,
II, p. 26.]
GEORGIA.--The extreme southeastern limit of the buffalo in the United
States was found on the coast of Georgia, near the mouth of the Altamaha
River, opposite St. Simon's Island. Mr. Francis Moore, in his "Voyage to
Georgia," made in 1736 and reported upon in 1744,[9] makes the following
observation:
[Note 9: Coll. Georgia Hist. Soc., I, p. 117.]
"The island [St. Simon's] abounds with deer and rabbits. There are no
buffalo in it, though there are large herds upon the main." Elsewhere in
the same document (p. 122) reference is made to buffalo-hunting by
Indians on the main-land near Darien.
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