lxxxviii LIFE OF 



many ages ago; and had evidently been used for the same pur- 

 poses. At the distance of more than a mile from the entrance, the 

 exploring party, on their first visit, found the roof blackened by 

 smoke, and bundles of half-burnt canes scattered about. A bark 

 mockasin, of curious construction, besides several other Indian 

 articles, were found among the rubbish. The earth, also, lay piled 

 in heaps, with great regularity, as if in preparation for extracting 

 the saltpetre. 



" Notwithstanding the miserable appearance of the timber in these 

 barrens, the soil, to my astonishment, produced the most luxuriant 

 fields of corn and wheat I had ever before met with. But one great 

 disadvantage is the want of water ; for the whole running streams, 

 with which the surface of this country evidently once abounded, 

 have been drained off to a great depth, and now murmur among 

 these lower regions, secluded from the day. One forenoon I rode 

 nineteen miles without seeing water; while my faithful horse 

 looked round, but in vain, at -every hollow, with a wishful and 

 languishing eye, for that precious element. These barrens furnished 

 me with excellent sport in shooting grouse, which abound here in 

 great numbers ; and in the delightful groves, that here and there 

 rise majestically from these plains, I found many new subjects for 

 my ' Ornithology.' I observed all this day, far to the right, a range 

 of high, rocky, detached hills, or knobs, as they are called, that 

 skirt the barrens, as if they had been once the boundaries of the 

 great lake that formerly covered this vast plain. These, I was told, 

 abound with stone, coal, and copperas. I crossed Big Barren river 

 in a ferry boat, where it was about one hundred yards wide ; and 

 passed a small village called Bowling Green, near which I rode my 

 horse up to the summit of one of these high insulated rocky hills, 

 or knobs, which overlooked an immense circumference of country, 

 spreading around bare and leafless, except where the groves ap- 

 peared, in which there is usually water. Fifteen miles from this, 

 induced by the novel character of the country, I put up for several 

 days at the house of a pious and worthy presbyterian, whence I made 

 excursions, in all directions, through the surrounding country. 

 Between this and Bed Biver, the country had a bare and desolate 

 appearance. Caves continued to be numerous; and report made 

 some of them places of concealment for the dead bodies of certain 



