210 JVotices of Big-bone Lick, 



discovered in the bank at the edge of the lick. We found here 

 two tusks above six feet long, we carried one, with some other 

 bones, to our boats and set off. This day we proceeded down the 

 river about 80 miles." 



According to General Collaud, as quoted by Cuvier, the bones 

 lay about four feet deep. General Harrison and Governor 

 Clarke have never given any information on this head that I am 

 aware of. 



Goforth relates, " we dug through several layers of small bones 

 in a stiff blue clay, such as deer, elk, buffalo and bear, in great 

 numbers, many much broken, below which was a stratum of 

 gravel and salt water, in which we found the large bones, some 

 nearly eleven feet deep in the ground, though they were also 

 found on the surface." 



So recently as the summer of 1828, when 1 visted this place, 

 bones of the larger animals were still to be found close to the sur- 

 face, or in the bed of the stream near the great spring. Some 

 of these, it was evident, had been previously disturbed, and there- 

 fore no longer occupied their ancient position. But some teeth 

 which I obtained were so large and so finely preserved, that they 

 certainly w^ould not have been left if they had been sooner dis- 

 covered. These lay in a very low place, within less than two 

 feet of the surface, and near the edge of the stream on the east of 

 the Gum Spring. 



The bones discovered in 1830, by Messrs. Finnell and Bullock, 

 were found under somewhat different circumstances from those 

 just described. The following particulars, gathered from one of 

 the proprietors who w^as present at their disinterment, and cor- 

 roborated by the letters of Mr. Bullock, may be relied on. 



They were procured on the north side of the island, a little 

 east of the great spring, and about fifty or sixty yards from it. 

 The pit or well, originally dug by Mr. Finnell, was nine feet 

 wide and about twenty-five deep. Mr. Bullock, thinking Mr, 

 Finnell had not thoroughly examined it, afterwards re-opened 

 and enlarged it in width and depth, and found many bones ; all, 

 however, on the same level, and none deeper. The great bones 

 were first met with at the depth of twenty-two feet, lying in a 

 bed of about three feet in thickness. The two great heads of 

 mastodon, and the large elephants' head found by Mr. Bullock, 

 were lying near together. Below them, were three of the large 



