lxxvi LIFE OF 



mound he also found a large fragment of earthenware, 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 earthenware, 

 dug tap 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 loth I entered Big Bone Creek, which 

 being passable 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 sheltered 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 entertained 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 the 

 latter places, I found numerous fragments of large bones lying scat- 

 tered about. In pursuing a wounded duck across this quagmire, I 

 had nearly deposited my carcase among the grand congregation of 

 mammoths below, having sunk up to the middle, and had hard 

 struggling to get out. 



" As the proprietor intends to dig in various places this season for 

 brine, and is a gentleman of education, I have strong hopes that a 

 more complete skeleton of that animal called the mammoth, than 

 has yet been found, will be procured. I laid the strongest injunc- 

 tions on the manager to be on the look out, and to preserve every- 

 thing, I also left a letter for Mr Colquhoun to the same purport, and 



