LIFE OF WILSON. 
cxxvu 
this quagmire, I had nearly deposited my carcass among the grand 
congregation of mammoths below, having sunk up to the middle, 
and had hard struggling to get out. As the proprietor intends to 
dig in various places this season for brine, and is a gentleman of 
education and intelligence, I have strong hopes that a more com- 
plete skeleton of that animal called the mammoth, than has yet 
been found, will be procured. I laid the strongest injunctions on 
the manager to be on the look out, and to preserve every thing ; I 
also left a letter for Mr. Colquhoun to the same purport, and am 
persuaded that these will not be neglected. In this neighbourhood 
I found the Columbo plant in great abundance, and collected some 
of the seeds. Many of the old stalks were more than five feet high. 
I have since found it in various other parts of this country. In the 
afternoon of the next day I returned to my boat, replaced my bag- 
gage, and rowed twenty miles to the Swiss settlement, where I 
spent the night. These hardy and industrious people have now 
twelve acres closely and cleanly planted with vines from the Cape 
of Good Hope. They last year made seven hundred gallons of 
wine, and expect to make three times as much the ensuing season. 
Their houses are neat and comfortable, they have orchards of peach 
and apple trees, besides a great number of figs, cherries, and other 
fruit trees, of which they are very curious. They are of opinion 
that this part of the Indiana Territory is as well suited as any part 
of France to the cultivation of the vine, but the vines they say re- 
quire different management here from what they were accustomed 
to in Switzerland. I purchased a bottle of their last vintage, and 
drank to all your healths as long as it lasted in going down the 
river. Seven miles below this I passed the mouth of Kentucky 
river, which has a formidable appearance. I observed twenty or 
thirty scattered houses on its upper side, and a few below, many 
of the former seemingly in a state of decay. It rained on me 
almost the whole of this day, and I was obliged to row hard and 
drink healths to keep myself comfortable. My birds’ skins were 
