THE BIG-BONE LICK. 47 



This celebrated bog is situated in a nearly level plain, 

 bounded by gentle slopes, which lead up to wide-extended 

 table-lands. In the spots where the salt springs rise, the bog 

 is so soft that a man may force a pile into it many yards per- 

 pendicularly. Some of these quaking bogs are even now 

 more than fifteen acres in extent, but were formerly much 

 larger, before the surrounding forest was partially cleared 

 away. Even at the present day cows, horses, and other 

 quadrupeds are occasionally lost here, as they venture on to 

 the treacherous ground. It may be easily understood, there- 

 fore, how the vast mastodons, elephants, and other huge animals 

 lost their lives. In their eagerness to drink the saline waters, 

 or lick the salt, those in front, hurrying forward, would have 

 been pressed upon by those behind, and thus, before they were 

 aware of their danger, sank helplessly into the quagmire. It 

 is supposed that the bones of not less than one hundred mas- 

 todons and twenty elephants have been dug up out of the bog, 

 besides which the bones ol stag, extinct horse, megalonyx, 

 and bison, have been obtained. Undoubtedly, therefore, this 

 plain has remained unchanged in all its principal features since 

 the period when these vast extinct quadrupeds inhabited the 

 banks of the Ohio and its tributaries. Here and there the 

 Big-bone Lick is covered with mud, washed over it by some 

 unusual rising of the Ohio River, which is known to swell 

 sixty feet above its summer level. 



Passing on through wide-spreading prairies, we cross the 

 mighty stream of the Mississippi to a slightly elevated district 

 of broad savannahs, till we reach a treeless region bordering 

 the very foot of the Rocky Mountains. Through this region 

 numerous rivers pass on their way to the Mississippi. Leav- 

 ing at length the great western plain, we begin to mount the 



