For several decades Lomax was loath to give up his notion that "Buffalo Skinners" was a spontaneous, purely American creation. Even though Fannie Eckstorm had bearded him early on with her Maine discovery of the Lumbering song creation. Over the years he slowly gives Maine more credit but first he mentions the Boswell Chapbook version hidden in the depths of Harvard Library. The chapbooks have never been published, to my knowledge, but I was able to con a friend, ghost, into the considerable trouble of viewing and copying the song for me. (I've really been looking into the thing for some while, you see.)

Boswell's version is essentially the same as Greig/Nic Jones. Still can't date the songs but Boswell died in 1795 - about 60 years before Greig was born. Duncan Emrich suggests "An original English love song, 'Caledonia,' appeared in print somewhere before 1800 in The Caledonian Garland (in Boswell Chapbooks)..."

Roud gives the first line of 'Canada Heigh-ho' and it seems the same enough. I think his source is the Madden Collection but I have no date at all for that. Do you? ----- "Kennedy-I-O" !