LIFE OF WILSON. CXXVli 



extended in fength for more than forty miles. The timber was 

 chiefly beech; every tree was loaded with nests, and I counted, 

 in different places, more than ninety nests on a single tree. 

 Beyond this I passed a large company of people engaged in 

 erecting a horse-mill for grinding grain. The few cabins I 

 passed were generally poor; but much superior in appearance 

 to those I met with on the shores of the Ohio. In the evening 

 I lodged near the banks of Green river. This stream, like all 

 the rest, is sunk in a deep gulf, between high perpendicular 

 walls of limestone; is about thirty yards wide at this place, and 

 runs with great rapidity; but, as it had fallen considerably, I 

 was just able to ford it without swimming. The water was of 

 a pale greenish colour, like that of the Licking, and some other 

 streams, from which circumstance I suppose it has its name. 

 The rocky banks of this river are hollowed out in many places 

 into caves of enormous size, and of great extent. These rocks 

 abound with the same masses of petrified shells so universal in 

 Kentucky. In the woods, a little beyond this, I met a soldier, 

 on foot, from New Orleans, who had been robbed and plunder- 

 ed by the Choctaws as he passed through their nation. " Thir- 

 teen or fourteen Indians," said he, " surrounded me before I 

 was aware, cut away my canteen, tore off my hat, took the 

 handkerchief from my neck, and the shoes from my feet, and 

 all the money I had from me, which was about forty-five dol- 

 lars." Such was his story. He was going to Chilicothe, and 

 seemed pretty nearly done, up. In the afternoon I crossed an- 

 other stream of about twenty-five yards in width, called Little 

 Barren; after which the country began to assume a new and 

 very singular appearance. The woods, which had hitherto 

 been stately, now degenerated into mere scrubby saplings, on 

 which not a bud was beginning to unfold, and grew so open 

 that I could see for a mile through them. No dead timber or 

 rotting leaves were to be seen, but the whole face of the ground 

 was covered with rich verdure, interspersed with a variety of 

 very beautiful flowers, altogether new to me. It seemed as if 

 the whole country had once been one general level; but that 



