Miscellaneous Facts and Observations. 157 



they are at present ; nor ever heard of any such crea- 

 ture having been seen by the oldest man, or his father : 

 that they had, indeed, a tradition, such mighty crea- 

 tures had once frequented these savannas, and there 

 were then men of a proportionable size to them, who 

 used to kill them, and tie them in their fooppesses*, 

 and throw them on their backs, as an Indian now 

 does a deer ; that they had seen marks in rocks, 

 which tradition said, were made by these great 

 and strong men, sitting down with their burthens, 

 just such as a man makes by sitting down on the 

 snow : that when there were no more of these strong 

 men left alive, God killed these mighty creatures, 

 that they might not hurt the present race of Indians ; 

 and added, that God had killed these last five they 

 had been questioned about ; which the interpreter 

 said, was to be understood, they supposed them to 

 have been killed by lightning. These, they said, 

 w r ere their traditions : but as to what they knew, they 

 had told it all." 



The preceding descriptive account of the bones of 

 the huge Ohio animal is much more accurate than 

 might have been expected from uncultivated Indians. 

 There is one part of the description which is particu- 

 larly entitled to attention. The Indians described 

 the mammoth as having " a long nose, with the 

 mouth on the under side." From this, it may, I 

 think, be inferred, that they had seen the proboscis 



* The hoppes, or rather ha/i/lis, is a band to cany with, on the 

 back. Editor. 



