Ixxviii LIFE OF AVILSON. 



found these petrified concretions of shells universal all over Kentucky, where- 

 ever I have been. The rocks look as if one had collected heaps of broken 

 shells, and wrought them up among clay, then hardened it into stone. These 

 rocks lie universally in horizontal strata. A farmer in the neighborhood of 

 Washington assured me, that from seven acres he reaped at once eight thousand 

 Tceight of excellent hemp, fit for market. 



"Amidst very tempestuous weather, I reached the to,wn of Cincinnati, which 

 does honor to the name of the old Roman, and is the neatest and handsomest 

 .situated place I have seen since I left Philadelphia. You must know that 

 during an unknown series of ages, the river Ohio has gradually sunk several 

 hundred feet below its former bed, and has left on both sides, occasionally, 

 what are called the first or nearest, and the second or next, high bank, the 

 latter of which is never overflowed. 



" The town of Cincinnati occupies two beautiful plains, one on the first, and 

 the other on the second bank, and contains upwards of five hundred houses, 

 the greater proportion of which are of brick. One block house is all that 

 remains of Fort Washington. The river Licking comes in from the opposite 

 shore, where the town of Newport, of forty or fifty houses, and a large arsenal 

 and barracks are lately erected. Here I met with Judge Turner, a man of 

 extraordinary talents, well known to the literati of Philadelphia. He exerted 

 himself in my behalf with all the ardor of an old friend. A large Indian 

 mound in the vicinity of this town has been lately opened by Doctor Drake, 

 who showed me the collection of curiosities which he had found in that and 

 others. In the centre of this mound he also found a large fragment of earthen 

 ware, such as I found at the Big Grave, which is a pretty strong proof that 

 these works had been erected by a people, if not the same, differing little 

 from the present race of Indians, whose fragments of earthen ware, dug up 

 about their late towns, correspond exactly with these. Twenty miles below 

 this I passed the mouth of the Great Miami, which rushes in from the north, 

 and is a large and stately river, preserving its pure waters uncontaminated for 

 many miles with those of the Ohio, each keeping their respective sides of the 

 channel. I rambled up the banks of this river for four or five miles, and in 

 my return shot a turkey. I also saw five or six deer in a drove, but they were 

 too light-heeled for me. 



" In the afternoon of the 15th, I entered Big-Bone Creek, which being pass- 

 able only about a quarter of a mile, I secured my boat, and left my baggage 

 under the care of a decent family near, and set out on foot five miles through 

 the woods for the Big-Bone Lick, that great antediluvian rendezvous of the 

 American elephants. This place, which lies " far in the windings of a shel- 

 tered vale," afforded me a fund of amusement in shooting ducks and paroquets 

 (of which last I skinned twelve, and brought off two slightly wounded), and 

 in examining the ancient buffalo roads to this great licking-place. Mr. 

 Colquhoun, the proprietor, was not at home, but his agent and manager enter- 

 tained me as well as he was able, and was much amused with my enthusiasm. 

 This place is a low valley, everywhere surrounded by high hills; in the centre, 

 by the side of the creek, is a quagmire of near an acre, from which, and 

 another smaller one below, the chief part of these large bones have been taken; at 



