ALEXANDER WILSON. 
lxxxv 
surprising, having been led, by common report, to believe that 
spring here is much earlier than in the lower parts of Pennsylvania. 
I must farther observe, that, instead of finding the woods of Ken- 
tucky covered with a profusion of flowers, they were, at this time, 
covered with rotten leaves, and dead timber in every stage of 
decay and confusion ; and I could see no difference 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 Canadensis , or red root, were peeping through the 
withered leaves ; and the buds of the buckeye, or horse chestnut, 
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 a vast depth to 
another stream called Dick’s River, ingulfed among the same per- 
pendicular 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 quite night, and I passed the rest of the road in the dark, over 
a rocky country abounding with springs, to Danville. This place 
stands on a slight eminence, and contains about eighty houses, 
chiefly log and frame buildings, disposed in two parallel streets 
crossed by several others. It has two rope works and a woollen 
manufactory, also nine shops and three taverns. I observed a great 
many sheep feeding about here, amidst fields of excellent pasture ; 
it is, however, but a dull place. A Roman Catholic chapel has 
been erected here at the expense of one or two individuals. The 
