40 



been discussed and settled in council, tlie governor ask- 

 ed tlicni Foine questions relative to their country, and 

 among others, what they knew or had heard of the 

 animal whose bones were found at the Sahhcks on the 

 Oliio. Their chief speaker immediately put himself 

 into an attitude of oratory, and with a pomp suited to 

 what he conceived the elevation of his subject, inform- 

 ed liim that it was a tradiii' n handed down from tiieir 

 fathers, 'That in ancient limes a herd of these tre- 

 mendous animals came to the Big-bone lirks, and be- 

 gan an universal destruction of the hear, deer, elks, 

 buffaloes, and other animals whi; h had been created 

 for the use of the Indians : that the Great Man above, 

 looking down and seeing this, was so enraged, that be 

 seized bis lightning, descended on the earth, seated 

 himself on a neighbouring fuountain, on a rockof wliicdi 

 bis seat and the })rint of liis feet are .-lil! to be seen, 

 and hurled bis l)olts among them till the whole were 

 slaughtered, except the big bull, who jiresenting his 

 forehead to the shafts, shook them off as they fell ; but 

 missing one at length, it woimded him in the side ; 

 "wherron, springing r 'Und, he bounded over the Ohio, 

 over the Wabash, the Illinois, and finally over the great 

 lakes, where be is living at this day.' It is well known, 

 that on the Ohio, and in many parts of America further 

 north, tusks, grinders and skeletons of unparalleled 

 magnitude, are found in great nuudjers, some lying on 

 the surface of the earth, and some a little below it. A 

 Mr Stanley, taken prisoner by the Indians near the 

 mouth of the Tanissee, relates, that after being trans- 

 ferred through several tribes, fj-om one to another, he 

 was at length carried over the mountains west of the 

 IMissouri to a river which runs westwarrjly : that these 

 bones abounded there, and that the natives described 

 to him the animai to which tliev belou'^ed as still ex- 

 isting in the northern parrs of their country ; from 

 whicli description he judged it to be an elephant. 

 Bones of the same kind have been lately found, some 

 feet beiow the surface of the earth, in salines opened 

 on the North Holston, a branch of the Tanissee, about 



