PIGEONS. 399 



o'clock the Pigeons, which I had observed flying the greater 

 part of the morning northerly, began to return in such im- 

 mense numbers as I never before had witnessed. Coming to 

 an opening by a side of a creek called the Benson, where I 

 had a more uninterrupted view, I was astonished at their 

 appearance. They were flying with great steadiness and 

 rapidity, at a height beyond gun shot, in several strata deep, 

 and so close together that could shot have reached them, one 

 discharge could not have failed of bringing down several 

 individuals. From right to left far as the eye could reach, 

 the breadth of this vast procession extended ; seeming every- 

 where equally crowded. Curious to determine how long this 

 appearance would continue, I took out my watch to note the 

 time, and sat down to observe them. It was then half past 

 one. I sat for more than an hour, but instead of a diminu- 

 tion of this prodigious procession, it seemed rather to increase 

 both in numbers and rapidity ; and, anxious to reach Frank- 

 fort before night, I rose and went on. About four o'clock 

 in the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky river, at the town 

 of Frankfort, at which time the living torrent above my 

 head seemed as numerous and as extensive as ever. Long 

 after this I observed them, in large bodies that continued to 

 pass for six or eight minutes, and these again were followed 

 by other detached bodies, all moving in the same south-east 

 direction till after six in the evening. . . . 



" To form a rough estimate of the daily consumption 

 of one of these immense flocks, let us first attempt to cal- 

 culate the numbers of that above mentioned as seen in 

 passing between Frankfort and Indiana territory. If we 

 suppose this column to have been a mile in breadth (and I 

 believe it to have been much more) and that it moved at the 

 rate of one mile in a minute ; four hours, the time it con- 

 tinued passing, would make its whole length two hundred 

 and forty miles. Again, supposing that each square yard of 

 this moving body comprehended three Pigeons ; the square 

 yards in the whole space multiplied by three, would give two 

 thousand two hundred and thirty millions, two hundred and 

 seventy-two thousand pigeons! An almost inconceivable 



