CHAP. XXXV.] FORK MERCHANT. 207 



four hundred thousand. Now it is believed that the census of 

 1850 will show the population of the whole country to have 

 changed its center to the west of the mountains, and under a 

 system of universal suffrage, the center of population becomes the 

 center of political power. After having been much interested 

 with the information which I gained from this companion, although 

 occasionally struck with his violation of the rules of ordinary good 

 manners, I was trying to divine to what class in society he might 

 belong, when he began to enlarge on the number of hogs killed 

 last year in Cincinnati, which exceeded all former seasons, 

 amounting to 300,000, and to describe to me how the streets, 

 in killing time, were blocked up with barrels of salt pork for ex 

 portation, so that it was not easy to pass in a carriage. He then 

 asked me abruptly, &quot; How many hogs do you think I killed last 

 season?&quot; Imagining that he might be a farmer, I said, 300. 

 He exclaimed, &quot; 18,000, and all of them dispatched in thirty-five 

 days !&quot; He next began to boast that one of his men could evis 

 cerate more hogs in one day than any other hand in Kentucky ; 

 and, placing himself in the attitude of his favorite executioner, he 

 gave me such a minute description of his mode of operating, and 

 dwelt on it with so much zest, as to make me feel satisfied that, 

 as Thomas Diafoirus, in the &quot; Malade Imaginaire,&quot; proposed to 

 treat his mistress with &quot; a dissection,&quot; so this member of the 

 &quot; pork aristocracy&quot; of the west, would never doubt that such 

 feats of professional dexterity as he loved to dilate upon, must 

 command the admiration of all men who have the slightest feeling 

 for superior artistical skill. 



The distance from Evansville to Louisville was 205 miles, 

 and on both sides of the river were hills of limestone or sandstone, 

 of the coal formation, 300 feet high, frequently presenting steep 

 and picturesque cliffs. Every where I observed a^flat terrace of 

 loam, or loess, bordering the river, sometimes on the side of Ken 

 tucky, sometimes on that of Indiana. 



I had found this ledge, both at Mount Vernon and at Evans 

 ville, to contain land and fresh-water shells. At the last-men- 

 tione dtown, where the terrace was from twenty to thirty feet high, 

 one of the lower beds of coarse materials was full of PalndincB 



