THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 
27 
after having viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances, I even 
now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I am going to relate 
is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that too in the company of persons 
who, like myself, were struck with amazement. 
In the autumn of 1813, 1 left my house at Henderson, on the banks of the 
Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens a few miles 
beyond Hardensburgh, I observed the Pigeons flying from north-east to 
south-west, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before, 
and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might pass within the reach 
of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and 
began to mark Avith my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In 
a short time finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable, as the 
birds poured on in countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then 
put down, found that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I traA r el- 
led on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally 
filled with Pigeons ; the light of noon-day was obscured as by an eclipse ; 
the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow ; and the con- 
tinued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose. 
Whilst waiting for dinner at Young’s inn at the confluence of Salt river 
with the Ohio, I saAV, at my leisure, immense legions still going by, with a 
front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west, and the beech-wood forests 
directly on the east of me. Not a single bird alighted ; for not a nut or acorn 
was that year to be seen in the neighbourhood. They consequently flew so 
high, that different trials to reach them with a capital rifle proved ineffectual; 
nor did the reports disturb them in the least. I cannot describe to you the 
extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions, when a Hawk chanced to press 
upon the rear of a flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thun- 
der, they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other towards the 
centre. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward in undulating and 
angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth Avith inconceivable 
velocity, mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a vast column, and, 
when high, Avere seen Avheeling and twisting within their continued lines, 
which then resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent. 
Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburgh fifty-five 
miles. The Pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and con- 
tinued to do so for three days in succession. The people Avere all in arms. 
The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men and boys, incessantly shoot- 
ing at the pilgrims, which there flew loAver as they passed the river. Multi- 
tudes were thus destroyed. For a Aveek or more, the population fed on 
no other flesh than that of Pigeons, and talked of nothing but Pigeons. 
It is extremely interesting to see flock after flock performing exactly the 
