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