212 JVotices of Big-bone Lick. 



down from the higher grounds, by rains and land floods. In 

 this yellow earth are found, along the water courses, at various 

 depths, the bones of buffaloes and other modern animals, many 

 broken, but often quite entire. 



Beneath this alluvial bed, is another thinner layer of a differ- 

 ent kind of soil, presenting much of the character of a sediment, 

 from a marsh or river. It is more gravelly, darker colored, softer, 

 and contains remains of reedy plants, smaller than the cane 

 so abundant in some parts of Kentucky, and shells of fresh water 

 mollusca. It appears to be, in short, what is meant by diluvium, 

 as distinguished from the alluvium, which forms the bed above 

 it.* In this layer, resting upon, and sometimes partially im- 

 bedded in a stratum of blue clay of a very compact and tena- 

 cious kind, are ^deposited the bones of the extinct species. Origi- 

 nally near the surface, they have been gradually covered by the 

 accumulation of alluvial matter above them. 



The depth of this alluvium is, however, variable. In some places 

 it is very thin, and in others is liable to be entirely washed away 

 by the inundations which are common here at some seasons of 

 the year. When this takes place, the blue clay is left bare, and 

 the bones exposed on the surface. It is in such situations, and 

 along the banks and bed of the streams, that they have been 

 found nearly or quite uncovered. The Gum Spring, as may be 

 seen by the map, is in the lowest part of the valley, near where 

 the torrents from the surrounding hills meet, before they find a 

 common outlet. The eastern branch of the stream, a few years 

 ago, forced itself a new channel on the north side, of what there- 

 by became the island, and united with the western, opposite the 

 spring, instead of their former confluence at the south-western 

 point. In this new channel I found several finely preserved teeth 

 and bones of the extinct animals. 



The side of the island which forms the south bank of the 

 stream, opposite the spring, is steep, and much elevated above 

 the surface on the other side, the yellow alluvial soil having ac- 

 cumulated to ,a great height. Consequently, the bones which 

 were found here in 1830, were deeply buried, as has been de- 



* The diffiTcnco between it and the upjier layer is so obvious, even to the work- 

 men, who have been employed in digginji here, that they have, with i)ropricty, <le- 

 nominatcd il, the " bone soil ;" and this distinction is rccof^iiised whenever they meet 

 with it, even in places where it does not contain bones. 



i 



