Notices of Big-hone Lick. 159 



The present communication comprises such information as the 

 writer has been able to glean, of the various explorers of this 

 celebrated place ; a notice of the animals which have been found 

 here, and the quantity of remains of each ; with a description of 

 the ground and other attendant circumstances that can throw 

 any light upon its theory. This must be, in several particulars, 

 imperfect : and any person who may be in possession of authentic 

 materials relative to this subject, is hereby invited to make them 

 known, or to communicate them to some competent person for 

 that purpose. It is only in this manner that we can expect to 

 supply any of the numerous desiderata in the history of Big-bone 

 Lick. 



Chronological Notice of the Explorers of Big-bone Lick. 



Longueil, a French officer, seems to have been the first who 

 procured fossil bones at this place. They were brought to him 

 from a morass near the Ohio, by some Indians who belonged to 

 his party. This was in 1739. 



Colonel George Croghan, on his passage down the Ohio, in 

 1765, stopped at Big-bone Lick, and is the first white man who is 

 known to have visited it. His description of the place as it ap- 

 peared at that time, will be found in another part of this memoir. 



General William H. Harrison of Ohio, was there, and obtained 

 many bones in 1795 ; and the French general CoUaud, as nearly 

 as I can ascertain, about the same period. 



Dr. Goforth of Cincinnati, was the next. He made large ex- 

 cavations, and found a great quantity of bones, which was about 

 the year 1804 ; the precise date I have not been able to learn. 



He was succeeded by General Clark, the distinguished travel- 

 ler, who was there in 1806. 



The Western Museum Society of Cincinnati, have caused 

 various examinations to be made for bones, and many more have 

 been carried away by travellers and others, within the last twen- 

 ty-five years. 



The author, in company with Mr. I. Cozzens, made a journey 

 to Big-bone Lick in the summer of 1828. We caused several ex- 

 cavations to be made, and collected .every thing that seemed 

 likely to add to our stock of information concerning the place. 



After all these various explorations, Mr. Benjamin Finnell, 

 who resides here, and had previously made considerable discovc- 



