1XXXV1 LIFE OF 



name. The rocky banks of the river are hollowed out, in many 

 places, into caves of enormous size, and of great extent. These 

 rocks abound with the same masses of petrified shells so universal 

 in Kentucky. 



" In the woods, a little beyond this, I met a soldier, on foot, from 

 New Orleans, who had been robbed and plundered by the Choctaws, 

 as he passed through their nation. ' Thirteen or fourteen Indians,' 

 said he, ' surrounded me before I was aware, cut away my canteen, 

 tore off my hat, took the handkerchief from my neck, and the shoes 

 from my feet, and all the money I had from me, which was about 

 forty-five dollars.' Such was his story. He was going to Chilocothe, 

 and seemed pretty nearly done up. In the afternoon I crossed 

 another stream, of about twenty-five yards in width, called Little 

 Barren • after which, the country began to assume a new and very 

 singular appearance. The woods, which had hitherto been stately, 

 now degenerated into mere scrubby saplings, on which not a bud 

 was beginning to unfold, and grew so open, that I could see for a mile 

 through them. No dead timber or rotten leaves were to be seen, 

 but the whole face of the ground was covered with rich verdure, 

 interspersed with a variety of very beautiful flowers, altogether new 

 to me. It seemed as if the whole country had once been one general 

 level ; but that, from some unknown cause, the ground had been 

 undermined, and had fallen in, in innumerable places, forming regu- 

 lar funnel-shaped concavities, of all dimensions, from twenty feet in 

 diameter, and sis feet in depth, to five hundred by fifty, the surface 

 or verdure generally unbroken. In some tracts, the surface was 

 entirely destitute of trees, and the eye was presented with nothing 

 but one general neighbourhood of these concavities, or, as they are 

 usually called, sink-holes. At the centre, or bottom, of some of 

 these, openings had been made for water. In several places these 

 holes had broken in, on the sides, and even middle of the road, to 

 an unknown depth ; presenting their grim mouths as if to swallow 

 up the unwary traveller. At the bottom of one of those declivities, at 

 least fifty feet below the general level, a large rivulet of pure water 

 issued at once from the mouth of a cave about twelve feet wide and 

 seven high. A number of very singular sweet smelling lichens 

 grew over the entrance, and a Peewee had fixed her nest, like a little 

 sentry-box, on a projecting shelf of the rock above the water. The 



