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‘‘The springs at Big Bone Lick, as at all other licks of Kentucky, are sources of saline 
waters derived from the older Paleozoic rocks. The saline materials, as has been sug- 
gested by Dr. Sterry Hunt, have their origin in the imprisoned waters of the ancient 
seas, or in the salts derived therefrom, which have been locked in the depths of the 
strata below the reach of the leaching action of the surface water. Whenever the rocks 
lie above the line of drainage, these salts have been leached away. As we go below 
the surface they increase in quantity until we reach the level, where these waters 
remain saturated with the materials which existed in the old sea waters. The displace- 
ment of these.old imprisoned waters is brought about by the sinking down of water on 
the highlands through the vertical interstices of the soil and rock and the consequent 
ter dency of the water below the surface to restore the hydrostatic balance. This action 
is particularly likely to occur when the rocks above the drainage are limestones or 
shales; while a bed of rock at some distance below the drainage is of sandstone, and 
permeable to water. 
‘‘ This is the case at Big Bone Lick, where, at about two hundred feet below the sur- 
face, we have the calciferous sandstone, with a structure open enough to admit the free 
passage of waiter in a horizontal direction. That some such process is at work, is shown 
by the fact that the water will rise ten feet or more above the surface of the soil if en- 
closed in a pipe. The fact that the reservoir of these waters is below the general sur- 
face, causes them to appear in the bottom of the valleys, and the considerable abstrac- 
tion of matter from the underlying beds probably amounts to some hundred cubic feet 
per annum in the case of Big Bone Lick, causes a depression at the point of escape, and 
brings about pretty generally the formation of a swamp in a depressed and: constantly 
lowering basin, through which the spring water seeps away, and where a large part of 
it is usually evaporated. This swamp forms a natural trap for all the higher mammalia 
init. When excavations are made near the existing outlets of the springs, we find the 
remains of large mammals brought by man, the horse, cow, pig, and sheep. 
“‘In the frequent change of outlet of these springs, it comes to pass that at many 
points near the snrface of the thirty or forty acres that lie in the little basin where Big 
Bone Lick is found, there are old spring vents, about which bones are found, that no 
longer give forth saline waters. It is a fact bearing on the history of the Buffalo, that 
their remains about Big Bone Lick are, when found, away from the purest springs, and 
never at any Gepth beneath the surface. In the recent springs they are very abundant, 
but not much more ancient in their appearance than the domesticated animals. The 
evidence obtained at this point leads to the conclusion that the first appearance of this 
species into the country was singularly recent, and also shows that their coming was 
like an irruption in its suddenness. These Buffalo bones are wonderfully abundant in 
some of the shallow swampy places of this neighborhood. I have seen them massed to 
the depth of two feet or more, as close as the stones of a pavement, and so beaten down 
by the succeeding herds as to make it difficult to lift them from their bed. 
‘* As will be seen from the accompanying diagram, there seems to have been some de- 
gradation of the surface of this swamp after the deposition of many of the Mastodon 
remains, and before the coming of the Buffalo. 
“‘This lowering of level was apparently consequent on the down-cuiting of the bed 
of the small creek that drains the valley. The old elevated beds had probably washed 
a good deal when the Buffalo came, but it was principally by its wallowing and stamp- 
ing that the bones of the Mastodon, Elephant, etc., were exposed to the air. At no 
point in this old ground did I find a trace of the Buffalo, though in some of it the bones 
identified by Mr. Allen as belonging to Ovibos were found. There, too, were found the 
