extended in length for more than forty miles. The timber was
chiefly beech; every tree was loaded with nests, and I counted,
in different places, more than ninety nests on a single tree.
Beyond this I passed a large company of people engaged in
erecting a horse-mill for grinding grain. The few cabins I
passed were generally poor; but much superior in appearance
to those I met with on the shores of the Ohio. In the evening
I lodged near the banks of Green river. This stream, like all
the rest, is sunk in a deep gulf, between high perpendicular
walls of limestone; is about thirty yards wide at this place, and
runs with great rapidity; but, as it had fallen considerably, I
was just able to ford it without swimming. The water was of
a pale greenish colour, like that of the Licking, and some other
streams, from which circumstance 1 suppose it has its name.
The rocky banks of this river are hollowed out in many places
into eaves of enormous size, and of great extent. These rocks
abound with the same masses of petrified shells so universal in
Kentucky. In the woods, a little beyond this, I met a soldier,
on foot, from New Orleans, who had been robbed and plunder-
ed by the Choctaws as he passed through their nation. " Thir-
teen or fourteen Indians," said he, " surrounded me before I
was aware, cut away my canteen, tore off my hat, took the
handkerchief from my neck, and the shoes from my feet, and
all the money I had from me, which was about forty-five dol-
lars." Such was his story. He was going to Chilicothe, and
seemed pretty nearly done up. In the afternoon I crossed an-
other stream of about twenty-five yards in width, called Little
Barren; after which the country began to assume a new and
very singular appearance. The woods, which had hitherto
been stately, now degenerated into mere scrubby saplings, on
which not a bud was beginning to unfold, and grew so open
that I could see for a mile through them. No dead timber or
rotting leaves were to be seen, but the whole face of the ground
was covered with rich verdure, interspersed with a variety of
very beautiful flowers, altogether new to me. It seemed as if
the whole country had once been one general level; but that



LIFE OF WVILSON.



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