d so constantly as to
occupy much time; yet these people become rich and powerful
wherever they settle themselves. Whatever they manufacture,
whatever their farms produce, is always in the highest repute,
and brings the highest price in the market. They receive all
strangers with great courtesy, and if they bring an introduction
they are lodged and fed for any length of time they choose to
stay; they are not asked to join in their labours, but are
permitted to do so if they wish it.

The Big-Bone Lick was not visited, and even partially examined,
without considerable fatigue.

It appeared from the account of our travellers, that the spot
which gives the region its elegant name is a deep bed of blue
clay, tenacious and unsound, so much so as to render it both
difficult and dangerous to traverse. The digging it has been
found so laborious that no one has yet hazarded the expense of a
complete search into its depths for the gigantic relics so
certainly hidden there. The clay has never been moved without
finding some of them; and I think it can hardly be doubted that
money and perseverance would procure a more perfect specimen of
an entire mammoth than we have yet seen. [Since the above was
written an immense skeleton, nearly perfect, has been extracted.]

And now the time arrived that our domestic circle was again to be
broken up. Our eldest son was to be entered at Oxford, and it
was necessary that his father should accompany him; and, after
considerable indecision, it was at length determined that I and
my daughters should remain another year, with our second son. It
was early in February, and our travellers prepared themselves to
encounter some sharp gales upon the mountains, though the great
severity of the cold appeared to be past. We got buffalo robes
and double shoes prepared for them, and they were on the eve of
departure when we heard that General Jackson, the newly-elected
President, was expected to arrive immediately at Cincinnati, from
his residence in the West, and to proceed by steamboat to
Pittsburgh, on his way to Washington. This determined them not
to fix the day of their departure till they heard of his arrival,
and then, if possible, to start in the same boat with him; the
decent dignity of a private conveyance not being deemed necessary
for the President of the United States.

The day of his arrival was however quite uncertain, and we could
only determine to have every thing very perfec