THE UPPER BARRIER WAS BROKEN. 361 



relating to the organic remains of a later date. These 

 embrace the remains of land animals, found in a fossil 

 state, not imbedded in the rocks, but simply buried in 

 the loose soil. 



Kentucky has been distinguished almost ever since its 

 discovery by white men, for the extraordinary number 

 and size of the bones found at different depths, from one 

 foot to twenty feet, in the neighbourhood of the Licks, 

 or places resorted to by wild animals to regale them- 

 selves with the briny water that oozes out at those spots. 

 The place most celebrated for these animal remains, and 

 particularly for those of the Great Mastodon, or Ameri- 

 can Mammoth, is generally distinguished by geographers 

 as the Big-Bone-Lick. 



This spot was profoundly explored by Governor 

 Clarke, in 1807, at the request of Mr. Jefferson, then 

 president of the United States; a citizen who has already 

 received the applause of the learned and the wise, by 

 the exertions which he made, himself, to promote natural 

 and physical inquiries, and by the employment of compe- 

 tent persons in various instances to explore the unknown 

 regions of North America. After the return of the for- 

 mer gentleman from the expedition to the Pacific Ocean 

 in 1806, he caused the soil of the Big-Bone-Licks to be 

 dug up. Bones were found in great number and variety. 

 They were carefully enclosed in boxes, and forwarded 

 to Washington City, in the district of Columbia, by the 

 way of New-Orleans. They arrived in safety about 

 March, 1808. Being then a senator in congress, I 

 had repeated opportunities of seeing the whole collec- 

 tion displayed in the president's house, and of hearing 

 Mr. Jefferson discourse upon them. I understood that 

 Me made a triple division of them, sending one-third to 



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