LIFE OF WILSON. 
CXXVll 
extended in length for more than forty miles. The timber was 
chiefly beech; every tree was loaded with nests, and I counted, 
in difierent places, more than ninety nests on a single tree. 
Beyond this I passed a large company of people engaged in 
erecting a horse-mill for grinding grain. The few cabins I 
passed were generally poor; but much superior in appearance 
to those I met with on the shores of the Ohio. In the evening 
I lodged near the banks of Green river. This stream, like all 
the rest, is sunk in a deep gulf, between high perpendicular 
walls of limestone; is about thirty yards wide at this place, and 
runs with great rapidity; but, as it had fallen considerably, I 
was just able to ford it without swimming. The water was of 
a pale greenish colour, like that of the Licking, and some other 
streams, from which circumstance 1 suppose it has its name. 
The rocky banks of this river are hollowed out in many places 
into caves of enormous size, and of great extent. These rocks 
abound with the same masses of petrified shells so universal in 
Kentucky. In the woods, a little beyond this, I met a soldier, 
on foot, from New Orleans, who had been robbed and plunder- 
ed by the Choctaws as he passed through their nation. “ Thir- 
teen or fourteen Indians,” said he, “ surrounded me before I 
was aware, cut away my canteen, tore off my hat, took the 
handkerchief from my neck, and the shoes from my feet, and 
all the money I had from me, which was about forty-five dol- 
lars.” Such was his story. He was going to Chilicothe, and 
seemed pretty nearly done up. In the afternoon I crossed an- 
other stream of about twenty-five yards in width, called Little 
Barren; after which the country began to assume a new and 
very singular appearance. The woods, which had hitherto 
been stately, now degenerated into mere scrubby saplings, on 
which not a bud was beginning to unfold, and grew so open 
that I could see for a mile through them. No dead timber or 
rotting leaves were to be seen, but the whole face of the ground 
was covered with rich verdure, interspersed with a variety of 
very beautiful flowers, altogether new to me. It seemed- as if 
the whole country had once been one general level; but that 
