CXXXVl 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
I passed through Nicholasville, the capital of Jessamine county, a 
small village begun about ten years ago, consisting of about twen- 
ty houses, with three shops and four taverns. The woods were 
scarcely beginning to look green, which to me was surprising, hav- 
ing been led by common report to believe, that spring here is much 
earlier than in the lower parts of Pennsylvania. I must further 
observe, that instead of finding the woods of Kentucky covered 
with a profusion of flowers, they were, at this time, covered with 
rotten leaves and dead timber, in every stage of decay and confu- 
sion ; and I could see no difierence between them and our own, 
but in the magnitude of the timber, and superior richness of the 
soil. Here and there the white blossoms of the Sanguinaria cana- 
densis, or red root, wei'e peeping through the withered leaves ; and 
the buds of the buckeye, or horse chesnut, and one or two more, 
were beginning to expand. Wherever the hackberry had fallen, 
or been cut down, the cattle had eaten the whole bark from the 
trunk, even to that of the roots. 
Nineteen miles from Lexington I descended a long, steep and 
rocky declivity, to the banks of Kentucky river, which is here about 
as wide as the Schuylkill ; and winds away between prodigious 
perpendicular cliffs of solid limestone. In this deep and romantic 
valley the sound of the boat horns from several Kentucky arks, 
which were at that instant passing, produced a most charming 
effect. The river, I was told, had already fallen fifteen feet ; but 
was still high. I observed great numbers of uncommon plants 
and flowers growing among the cliffs; and a few solitary bank 
swallows were skimming along the surface. Reascending from 
this, and travelling for a few miles, I again descended avast depth 
to another stream called Dick’s river, engulfed among the same 
perpendicular masses of rock. Though it was nearly dark I found 
some curious petrifactions, and some beautiful specimens of mother 
of pearl on the shore. The roaring of a mill-dam, and the rattling 
of the mill, prevented the ferryman from hearing me till it was 
