Jacob Burnet was traveling overland on horseback from Cincinnati
to Vincennes on professional business, and while at some point north and
west of the falls of the Ohio, he and his companions surprised a small
herd of eight or ten buffalos, that were seeking shelter behind the top
of a fallen beech tree on the line of an old "trace," during a snow
storm. This is one of the last accounts given of any buffalos in
Indiana. On August 18th and August 27th, 1804, Governor William Henry
Harrison, as Indian agent for the United States government, bought a
large tract of land in southern Indiana, between the Wabash and the Ohio
rivers, from the Delaware and Piankeshaw tribes. The right to make this
purchase was disputed by Captain William Wells, the Indian agent at Fort
Wayne, and by the Little Turtle, claiming to represent the Miamis, and
it was claimed among other things, that the lands bought were frequented
as a hunting ground by both the Miamis and Potawatomi, and that they
went there to hunt buffalo. The truth of this statement was denied by
Governor Harrison, who said that not an animal of that kind "had been
seen within that tract for several years."

Traces of the old buffalo wallows are occasionally met with, even to
this day. The great animals "rolled successively in the same hole, and
each carried away a coat of mud," which, baking in the sun, served to
protect them against the great swarm of flies, gnats and insects that
infested the marshes and prairies of that early time. One of these
wallows, in a perfect state of preservation, exists in the northwest
quarter of section thirty, in township twenty-five north, range six
west, in Benton County, Indiana. It is several yards in diameter,
hollowed out to a depth of four or five feet, and its periphery is
almost an exact circle. It is situated on a rather high, springy
knoll, commanding a view of the surrounding plain for several miles.
A great number of Indian arrow heads have been picked up in the
immediate vicinity, showing that the Indiana had previously resorted
thither in search of game.

[Illustration: A typical buffalo wallow on the Donaldson farm in
Benton County, Indiana. Photo by Heaton.]

CHAPTER V

THE WABASH AND THE MAUMEE

--_Chief line of communication with the tribes of the Early Northwest.
The heart of the Miami Country._

To give a detailed description of the many beautiful rivers, valleys and
forests of the northwest at the opening of