178 The Wilson Bulletin — No. Go, 



March 9th amidst very tempestoiis weather. Here he examined 

 the collection of Indian relics possessed by Dr. Drake, and the 

 inhabitants are described as a very thoughtful people, i. e. 

 when approached for subscriptions, they promised to think of 

 it. He rambled up the banks of the Great Miami, twenty miles 

 befow, for four or five miles, and shot a Wild Turkey and saw 

 several deer. On the afternoon of the loth, he entered the Big 

 Bone creek, and securing his boat, rambled through the woods 

 to Big Bone Lick, the ancient rendezvous of the mastodon ; 

 securing fourteen Paroquets on his return, and stopping the 

 next night at the Swiss settlement of vine growers. During 

 the following day he passed the mouth of the Kentucky and was 

 very much disgusted to have to lodge at a wretched hovel and 

 listen to- the tales of a braggard, the last night on the river. 

 Although an early start "was taken in the morning, an unsuc- 

 cessful turkey hunt detained him so long that night came on 

 before he heard the roaring of the rapids. Cautiously coasting 

 the Kentucky shore, for he was greatly alarmed, a haven was 

 found at Bear Grass creek, and he groped his way through 

 a swamp to the town of Louisville, March 17th ; and the end 

 of the first stage of his journey was successfully reached. The 

 next day he sold his skifi: for exactly half of what it had cost 

 him, the purchaser wondering why he had given it so droll an 

 "Indian" name. 



At Pittsburg, Long Reach, Cincinnati and Bairdstown he 

 had recorded the Snowy Owl. He had now arrived in a coun- 

 try at the proper time in which tO' look for something more 

 than "Snowbirds and sparrows." Here he came unexpectedly 

 upon Audubon engaged in drawing birds in crayons at his 

 place of business and later enjoyed an afternoon's shooting 

 with him. As it happened, he had put up at the house in which 

 Audubon and family made their home. The lively Frenchman 

 thought that Wilson's retired habits exhibited either a strong 

 discontent or a decided melancholy, and the Scotch airs he 

 played sweetly on his flute made Andubon melancholy too. 

 Wilson was bitterly disappointed in Louisville, of which he had 

 been led to expect so much of everything and received so little 



