110 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
the river. To avoid the muddy lowland again, the guide was 
sent ahead to secure the * 'dinky" boat and come up stream for 
us. It did not take long to discover that we were to see a 
little of the treacherous side of Nolin River, — a river full of 
whirlpools and eddies. The river was out of its banks and 
very rapid, the boat unwieldy, and the guide not a dexterous 
oarsman. We made slow progress; but when the boy lost 
an oar, we were at the mercy of the contrary stream, so that 
to return to the ferry was the only alternative. The boat 
swung back and forth down the stream, brushing against the 
willows on one bank, and then on the other, till we finally 
reached the landing. We passed the ''wagon shed," part of 
the cliff with a natural tunnel beneath, that formed a natural 
bridge ; but the chief point of interest we visited during the day 
was a certain cliff where the botanist. Prof Hussey, is said to 
have found, for the first time in this State, the rare fern, 
Asplenium Bradleyi. I went to rediscover its station, and 
found it, still growing on the face of a high arching rock, 
with many other ferns about the base. Along the stream the 
ground was carpeted with them ; but the fate of many of them 
is sealed, as the denuded hills let in the sunshine, in many 
places, more familiarly than is liked by some of the species. 
Under the over-hanging sand-rocks, sheltered from the 
sun's rays, were spaces of vast extent where the mound build- 
ers as well as the Indians had evidently had their homes. 
This is shown by the many relics that have been found here; 
by the mounds in the neighborhood and by the mortar holes 
in the detached masses of sandrock. At one of these, our 
guide exclaimed, with a knowing air, "This is wher the Injuns 
ground ther coffee!" 
Near a cliff where there are two mortar stones there is a 
large bed of mussel shells, this, too, at quite a distance from 
the river. In a field in the lowlands between the ridge and the 
river is a group of limestone slabs, set endwise at regular 
