The Extermination of the American Bison | Page 3

sight.
"They have a broad and short face, eyes two palms from each other,
and projecting in such a manner sideways that they can see a pursuer.
Their beard is like that of goats, and so long that it drags the ground
when they lower the head. They have, on the anterior portion of the
body, a frizzled hair like sheep's wool; it is very fine upon the croup,
and sleek like a lion's mane. Their horns are very short and thick, and
can scarcely be seen through the hair. They always change their hair in
May, and at this season they really resemble lions. To make it drop
more quickly, for they change it as adders do their skins, they roll
among the brush-wood which they find in the ravines.
"Their tail is very short, and terminates in a great tuft. When they run
they carry it in the air like scorpions. When quite young they are tawny,

and resemble our calves; but as age increases they change color and
form.
"Another thing which struck us was that all the old buffaloes that we
killed had the left ear cloven, while it was entire in the young; we could
never discover the reason of this.
"Their wool is so fine that handsome clothes would certainly be made
of it, but it can not be dyed for it is tawny red. We were much surprised
at sometimes meeting innumerable herds of bulls without a single cow,
and other herds of cows without bulls."
Neither De Soto, Ponce de Leon, Vasquez de Ayllon, nor Pamphilo de
Narvaez ever saw a buffalo, for the reason that all their explorations
were made south of what was then the habitat of that animal. At the
time De Soto made his great exploration from Florida northwestward to
the Mississippi and into Arkansas (1539-'41) he did indeed pass
through country in northern Mississippi and Louisiana that was
afterward inhabited by the buffalo, but at that time not one was to be
found there. Some of his soldiers, however, who were sent into the
northern part of Arkansas, reported having seen buffalo skins in the
possession of the Indians, and were told that live buffaloes were to be
found 5 or 6 leagues north of their farthest point.
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 Samuel Argoll,[3] 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
Pembrook [Potomac] River, 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."
[Note 3: Purchas: His Pilgrimes. (1625.) Vol. IV, p. 1765. "A letter of
Sir Samuel Argoll touching his Voyage to Virginia, and actions there.
Written to Master Nicholas Hawes, June, 1613."]
It is to be regretted that the narrative of the explorer affords no clew to
the precise locality of this interesting discovery, 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.
The first meeting of the white man with the buffalo on the northern
boundary of that animal's habitat occurred in 1679, when Father
Hennepin ascended the St. Lawrence to the great lakes, and finally
penetrated the great wilderness as far as western Illinois.
The next meeting with the buffalo on the Atlantic slope was in October,
1729, by a party of surveyors under Col. William Byrd, who were
engaged in surveying the boundary between North Carolina and
Virginia.
As the party journeyed up from the coast, marking the line which now
constitutes the interstate boundary, three buffaloes were seen on
Sugar-Tree Creek, but none of them were killed.
On the return journey, in November, a bull buffalo was killed on
Sugar-Tree Creek, which is in Halifax County, Virginia, within 5 miles
of Big Buffalo Creek; longitude 78° 40' W., and 155 miles from