other fects have numerous adherents. But from thefe early movements it is hoped that Kentucky will eminently fhine in learning and piety, which will fulfil the with of every virtuous citizen.

Among the natural curiofities of this country, the winding banks, or rather precipices, of Kentucky and Dick's Rivers, deferve the first place. The aftonished eye there beholds almoft every where three or four hundred feet of a folid perpendicular limeftone rock; in fome parts a fine white marble, either curiously arched, pillared, or blocked up into fine building tones. Thefe precipices are like the fides of a deep trench, or canal; the land above being level, except where creeks fet in, and crowned with fine groves of red cedar. It is only at particular places that this river can be croffed, one of which is worthy of admiration; a great road, large enough for waggons, made by the buffalo, floping with an eafy defcent from the top to the bottom of a very large fteep hill, at or near the river above Lees-town.

Caves are found in this country amazingly large; in fome of which you may travel feveral miles under a fine limestone rock, fupported by curious arches and pillars: in moft of them runs a ftream of water.

Near the head of Salt River a fubterranean lake or large pond has lately been difcovered. Colonel Bowman fays, that he and a companion travelled in one four hours till he luckily came to the mouth again. The fame gentleman mentions another which operates like an air furnace, and contains much fulphur. An adventurer in any of thefe will have a perfect idea of primeval darkness.

There appear to be great natural ftores of fulphur and falt in this coun-try. A fpring at Boonfburrow conftantly emits fulphureous particles, and near the fame place is a falt fpring. There is another fulphureous fpring upon Four Mile Creek, a third upon Green River, and many others

in different places, abounding with that ufeful mineral.

There are three fprings or ponds of bitumen near Green River, which do not form a ftream, but difgorge themfelves into a common refervoir, and when used in lamps anfwer all the purposes of the finest oil.

There are different places abounding with copperas, eafily procured, and in its prefent impure ftate fufficient for the use of the inhabitants: and when refined, equal to any in the world.

There is an alum bank on the fouth fide of Cumberland River, situated at the bottom of a cliff of rocks projecting over it. In its prefent ftate it has the appearance and poffefies the vir tues of that mineral, and when purified is a beautiful alum.

Many fine falt fprings conftantly emit water, which, being manufac tured, affords great quantities of fine falt. At prefent there is but one, called Bullet's Lick, improved, and this affords falt fufficient for all Kentucky, and exports fome to the Illinois. Drinnons-lick, the Bigbone, and the Blue-licks, fend forth itreams of falt water. The Nob-lick, and many others, do not produce water, but confift of clay mixed with falt particles: to these the cattle repair, and reduce high hills rather to valleys than plains. The amazing herds of buffalo which refort thither, by their fize and number, fill the traveller with amazement and terror, efpecially when he beholds the prodigious roads they have made from all quarters, as if leading to fome populous city; the valt space of land around thefe fprings defolated as if by a ravaging enemy, and hills reduced to plains; for the land near thofe fprings are chiefly hilly. Thefe are truly curiofities, and the eye can fcarcely be fatisfied with admiring them.

A medicinal fpring is found near the Greatbone Lick, which has perfectly cured the itch by once bathing; and experience in time may discover in it other virtues. There is ano

ther of like nature near Drinnon's Lick.

phibious quadruped exifts in our American waters. The bones themfelves bear a great refemblance to those of the elephant. There is no other terrestrial animal now known large enough to produce them. The tuks with which they are equally furnished, equally produce true ivory. Thefe external refemblances have generally made fuperficial obfervers conclude, that they could belong to no other than that prince of quadrupeds; and when they first drew the attention of the world, philofophers feem to have fubfcribed to the fame opinion.-But iffo, whence is it that the whole species has disappeared from America ? An animal fo laborious and fo docile, that the industry of the Feruvians, which reduced to fervitude and fubjected to education species fo vally inferior in those qualities, as the Llama and the Paca, could never have overlooked the elephant, if he had been to be found in their cou try. Whence is it that thefe bones are found in climates where the elephant, a native of the torrid zone, cannot even fubfift in his wild ftate, and in a flate of fervitude will not propagate? These are difficulties fufficient to flagger credulity itfelf; and at length produced the enquiries of Dr. Hunter. That celebrated anatomift, having procured fpecimens from the Ohio, examined them with that accuracy for which he is fo much distinguished. He difcovered a considerable difference between the fhape and structure of the bones, and those of the elephant. He obferved from the form of the teeth, that they must have belonged to a carnivorous animal; whereas the habits of the elephant are foreign to fuch fuftenance, and his jaws totally unprovided with the teeth neceffary for its ufe: and from the whole he concluded, to the fatisfaction of naturalifts, that these bones belonged to a quadruped now unknown, and whofe race is probably extinct, unless it may be found in the extensive continent of New Holland, whose receffes have not yet been pervaded by the curiofity or avidity of civilized man,

Near Lexington are to be feen cu. rious fepulchres, full of human fkeletons, which are thus fabricated. First on the ground are laid large broad ftones; on these were placed the bodies, feparated from each other by broad ftones, covered with others, which ferve as a bafis for the next arrangement of bodies. In this order they are built, without mortar, growing ftill narrower to the height of a man. This method of burying appears to be totally different from that now practifed by the Indians. At a falt fpring near Ohio river, very large bones are found, far furpaffing the fize of any species of animals now in America. The head appears to have been about three feet long, the ribs seven, and the thigh bones about four; one of which is repofited in the library in Philadelphia, and faid to weigh feventy-eight pounds. The tulks are above a foot in length, the grinders about five inches fquare, and eight inches long. Thefe bones have equally excited the amazement of the ignorant, and attracted the attention of the philofopher. Specimens of them have been fent both to France and England, where they have been examined with the greatest diligence, and found upon comparison to be remains of the fame fpecies of animals that produced those other fofil bones which have been discovered in Tartary, Chili, and several other places, both of the old and new continent. What animal this is, and by what means its ruins are found in regions fo widely different, and where none fuch exifts at prefent, is a queftion of more difficult decifion. The ignorant and fuperftitious Tartars attribute them to a creature, whom they call Maimon, who, they fay, ufually refides at the bottom of the rivers, and of whom they relate many marvellous ftories; but as this is an affertion totally divelled of proof, and even of probability, it has juftly been rejected by the learned; and on the other hand it is certain, that no fuch am

C 2

Can

Can then fo great a link have perished from the chain of nature? Happy we that it has. How formidable an enemy to the human fpecies, an animal as large as the elephant, the tyrant of the forefts, perhaps the devourer of man! Nations, fuch as the Indians, muft have been in perpetual alarm. The animofities among the various tribes must have been fufpended till the common enemy, who threatened the very existence of all, fhould be extirpated. To this circumftance we are probably indebted for a fact, which is perhaps fingular, in its kind, the extinction of a whole race of animals from the fyftem of nature.

Mr. Filfon concludes his account of Kentucky with the following obfervations on the happy circumftances, that the inhabitants of Kentucky will probably enjoy, from the poffeffion of a country fo extenfive and fertile.

There are four natural qualities neceffary to promote the happiness of a country, viz. A good foil, air, water, and trade. These taken collectively, excepting the latter, Kentucky poffeffes in a fuperior degree: and, agreeable to our defcription of the western trade, we conclude, that it will be nearly equal to any other on the continent of America, and the difadvantages it is fubject to, be fully compenfated by the fertility of the foil.

This fertile region, abounding with all the luxuries of nature, stored with all the principal materials for art and industry, inhabited by virtuous and ingenious citizens, must univenially attract the attention of mankind, being fituated in the central part of the extenfive American empire where agriculture, induftry, laws, arts and fciences, flourish; where afflicted humanity raifes her drooping head; where fprings a harveft for the poor; where confcience ceafes to be a flave, and laws are no more than the fecurity of happiness; where nature makes reparation for having created man; and government, fo long pro:tituted to the most criminal purposes, establishes an asy

lum in the wilderness for the diftreffed of mankind.

The recital of your happiness will call to your country all the unfortunate of the earth, who, having experienced oppreffion, political or religious, will there find a deliverance from their chains. To you innumerable multitudes will emigrate from the hateful regions of defpotifm and tyranny; and you will furely welcome them as friends, as brothers; you will welcome them to partake with you of your happiness. Let the memory of Lycurgus, the Spartan legiflator, who banished covetousness, and the love of gold from his country; the excellent Locke, who first taught the doctrine of toleration; the venerable Penn, the first who founded a city of brethren; and Washington, the defender and protector of persecuted liberty; be ever the illuftrious examples of your political conduct. Avail yourfelves of the benefits of nature, and of the fruitful country you inhabit.

Let the iron of your mines, the wool of your flocks, your flax and hemp, the skins of the favage animals that wander in your woods, be fashioned into manufactures, and take an extraordinary value from your hands. Then will you rival the fuperfluities. of Europe, and know that happiness may be found, without the commerce. fo univerfally defired by mankind. ‹

In your country, like the land of promife, flowing with milk and honey, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, that fpring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, and all kinds of fruits, you fhall eat bread without scarceness, and not lack any thing in it; where you are neither chilled with the cold of capricorn, nor fcorched with the burning heat of cancer; the mildness of your air fo great, that you neither feel the effects of infectious fogs, nor peftilential vapours. Thus, your country, favoured with the fmiles of heaven, will probably be inhabited by the firit people the world ever knew.'

OBSERVA

of the Miffiffippi.

ent

THERE are twenty-eight differof the Miffiffippi; the principal of which are the Cherokees, the Chicafaws, the Choctaws, the Creeks, the Delawares, the fix Nations, the Shawanese, the Hurons, the Illinois, &c. Allowing about 700 to a nation or tribe, they will contain, in all, 20,000 fouls, and, confequently, may furnish between four and five thousand warriors.

The fpeculations of curious idleness have framed many fyftems to account for the population of this immenfe continent. There is fcarce a people in the old world which has not had its advocates; and there have not been wanting fome, who, defpairing to loofen, have cut the knot, by fuppofing that the power which furnished America with plants, has in the fame manner fupplied it with men; or at leaft, that a remnant in this continent was faved from the univerfal deluge, as well as in the other. As this fubject is rather curious than useful, and, in its very nature, does not admit of certainty, every thing that paffed in America before the arrival of the Europeans being plunged in Cimmerian darkness, except thofe little traditional records, which diffuse a glimmering light on the two empires of Mexico and Peru, for about two hundred years at most before that period, we fhall only flightly touch on that fubject; chiefly for the fake of taking notice of fome modern discoveries which seem to ftrengthen the probability of fome former theories. The great fimilarity, or rather identity, of the perfons and manners of the Americans, and thofe of the Tartars of the north eastern parts of Afia, together with a prefumption, which has long poffeffed the learned, that Afia and America were united, or at leait fepa

rated only by a narrow fea, has inclined the more reflecting part of

mankind to the opinion, that the true origin of the Indians is from this quarter. The immenfe feas, which separate the two continents on every other fide, render it highly improbable that any colonies could ever have been fent across them before the dif covery of the magnetical compass. The ingenious M. Buffon too has remarked, and the observation appears to be juft, that there are no animals inhabiting in common the two continents, but fuch as can bear the colds of the north. Thus there are no elephants, no lions, no tigers, no camels in America; but bears, wolves, deer, and elks in abundance, abfolutely the fame in both hemifpheres. This hypothefis, which has been gaining ground ever fince its first appearance in the world, is now reduced almost to a certainty by the late difcoveries of captain Cook. That illuftrious, but unfortunate navigator, in his last voyage, penetrated for a confiderable diftance into the ftrait which divides Afia from America, which is only fix leagues wide at its mouth; and there fore eafily practicable for canoes. We may now therefore conclude, that no farther enquiry will ever be made into the general origin of the American tribes.

Yet after all it is far from being improbable that various nations, by fhipwreck, or otherwife, may have contributed, in fome degree, to the population of this continent. The Carthaginians, who had many fettlements on the coaft of Africa, beyond the ftraits of Gibraltar, and pushed their discoveries as far as where the two continents in that quarter approach each other the nearest, may probably have been thrown by tem

pests