Notices of Big-bone Lick. 207 



I have myself, collected the bones of three or four more at this 

 place ; the horse, the bear, the buffalo, and two or three species 

 of deer, have been recorded among the fossil animals. But none 

 of these appear to me to merit that epithet in the geological 

 sense of the word. 



Except the first, they are all animals indigenous to the country^ 

 and there would be nothing surprising in finding their bones near 

 the surface, or even, sometimes, at the depth of several feet, when 

 it is recollected how often the ground has been disturbed by re- 

 peated diggings. Bear's bones from this locality, I have never 

 seen, nor indeed of any carnivorous animal, which I consider a 

 remarkable circumstance. Antlers, jaws, and other remains of 

 Cervus canadensis, C. virginianus, C. alces, and perhaps C. taran- 

 dus, are not very rare. I think I have observed among the col- 

 lections made at Big-bone Lick, traces of each of these. But 

 they bear no proportion to those of the buffalo, whose bones are 

 dispersed through the alluvial soil, or strewn over the surface in 

 great abundance. The buffalo in modern times, as perhaps the 

 mastodon in past ages, seems to have nearly monopolized this 

 favourite haunt to himself. With the horse, the case is different^ 

 inasmuch as this animal is generally believed not to have been an 

 aboriginal inhabitant of this continent.* But it is not at all necessa- 

 ry to suppose that he was so, to account for the simple circumstance 

 of finding a few of his bones at this place. Within a few yards of 

 the spot where the excavations of last September were made, are 

 the vestiges of a fort, and several wells, the work of the first 

 settlers of Kentucky, about forty or fifty years ago. They doubt- 

 less brought horses with them, some of which may have died 

 here, and their bones might easily have become more or less 

 covered with earth in a place where wells were dug, and the 

 ground tilled, as it has been here, for many years past. Nothing 

 in regard to this point can be argued from the state of preserva- 

 tion of any remains found at Big-bone Lick. I have now before 

 me a tooth of a megalonyx found here, apparently as sound and 

 fresh as any of the recent horse or buffalo. 



If any well identified remains of the horse had been found as- 

 sociated in the same bed, with those of the extinct animals, in 

 spots well known not to have been previously disturbed, we could 

 not refuse to- admit tjieir equal antiquity with the rest. But I do 

 * Our author will find many individuals, entertauiing a different opinion, — Ed. 



