ALEXANDER WILSON. 
Ixxvii 
of five hundred houses, the greater proportion of which are of 
brick. One block house is all that remains of Fort Washington. 
The river Licking comes in from the opposite shore, where the 
town of Newport, of forty or fifty houses, and a large arsenal and 
barracks, are lately erected. Here I met with Judge Turner, a 
man of extraordinary talents, well known to the literati of Phila- 
delphia : he exerted himself in my behalf with all the ardour of an 
old friend. A large Indian mound, in the vicinity of this town, 
has been lately opened by Dr Drake, who shewed me the collection 
of curiosities which he had found in that and others. In the centre 
of this mound he also found a large fragment of earthen ware, such 
as I found at the Big Grave , which is a pretty strong proof that 
these works had been erected by a people, if not the same, differing 
little from the present race of Indians, whose fragments of earthen- 
ware, dug up about their late towns, correspond exactly with these. 
Twenty miles below this I passed the mouth of the great Miami, 
which rushes in from the north, and is a large and stately river, 
preserving its pure waters, uncontaminated for many miles with 
those of the Ohio, each keeping their respective sides of the 
channel. I rambled up the banks of this river for four or five 
miles, and in my return shot a Turkey. I also saw five or six deer 
in a drove, but they were too light-heeled for me. 
“ In the afternoon of the 15th I entered Big Bone Creek, which 
being passable only about a quarter of a mile, I secured my boat, 
and left my baggage under the care of a decent family near, and 
set out on foot five miles through the woods for the Big Bone 
Lick, that great antediluvian rendezvous of the American elephants. 
This place, which lies 4 far in the windings of a sheltered vale,’ 
afforded me a fund of amusement in shooting Ducks and Paroquets, 
(of which last I skinned twelve, and brought off two slightly 
wounded,) and in examining the ancient buffalo roads to this great 
licking place. Mr Colquhoun, the proprietor, was not at home ; 
but his agent and manager entertained me as well as he was able, 
and was much amused with my enthusiasm. This place is a low 
valley, every where surrounded by high hills ; in the centre, by the 
side of the creek, is a quagmire of near an acre, from which, and 
another smaller one below, the chief part of these large bones have 
been taken ; at the latter places, I found numerous fragments of large 
