(234 - APPENDIX. 
.the depth of two feet or more, as close as the stones of a pavement, and so 
beaten down by the succeeding herds as to make it difficult to lift them from 
their bed.. io 
As will be seen from the accompanying diagram, there seems to have been 
some degradation of the surface of this swamp after the deposition of many 
of the mastodon remains, and before the coming of the buffalo. This lower- 
ing of level was apparently consequent on the erosion of the bed of the 
small creek that drains the valley. The old elevated beds had probably 
washed a good deal when. the buffalo came, but it was principally by its 
wallowing and stamping that the bones of the mastodon, elephants, &c., were 
exposed to the air.* At no point in this old ground did I find a trace of the 
buffalo, though in some of it the bones identified by Mr. Allen as belong- 
ing to Ovibos were found. There, too, were found the bones of the moose 
and caribou. J am inclined to believe from these investigations that the 
Bison americanus did not appear at Big Bone Lick until a very recent time. 
All the observations made by the Kentucky Survey in the caverns of the 
State, and the neighboring district of Tennessee, have led to the discovery 
of no bison remains in these subterranean receptacles, where the bones of the 
beaver, deer, wolf, bear, and many other mammals have been discovered. The 
observation of the officers of the Survey to be published hereafter will show 
that our caves have been used as the homes of the living and the receptacles 
of the dead by more than one of the earlier tribes of this region, but they 
seem never to have brought the bones of this animal to the caves. 
Some years ago I ventured to call attention to the general absence of the 
remains of this animal in all the mounds of the historic or prehistoric races, 
and to the fact that on their pipes and pottery, though they figure every 
other indigenous mammal and some of the birds of this region, seeking their 
models even in the manitee of Florida, Ihave never been able to find any 
trace of buffalo bones in any of the mounds which so often contain bones 
of other animals, nor have I been able to ascertain that they have ever been 
found in such places. At an ancient camping-ground on the Ohio River, 
about twelve miles above Cincinnati, where the remains are covered by allu- 
vial soil of apparently some antiquity, and where the pottery (hereafter to be 
figured in the Memoirs of the Survey) is rather more ancient in character 
than that made by our modern Indians, I found bones of deer, elk, bear, fox, 
&c., but none of buffalo. At a number of other old camps on the Ohio River 
* For the habits of the buffalo in this regard, see the preceding Memoir of Mr. Allen, p.-64, et seq. 
