Ixxviii 
LIFE OF 
bones lying scattered about. In pursuing a wounded Duck across 
this quagmire, I bad 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, I have strong hopes 
that a more complete 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 Colqulioun 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 baggage, 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, require different 
management here from what they are accustomed to in Switzer- 
land. 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 wrapt up in my 
greatcoat, and my own skin had to sustain a complete drenching, 
which, however, had no bad effects. This evening I lodged at 
the most wretched hovel I had yet seen. The owner, a meagre 
