"Big-bone Lick, where so many remains of the Mastodon and other extinct quadrupeds have been dug up, is distant from Cincinnati about twenty-three miles in a south-west direction. This celebrated bog is situated in a nearly level plain, in a valley bounded by gentle slopes, which lead up to flat table-lands composed of blue argillaceous (Silurian) limestone, and marl. The general course of the meandering stream which flows through the plain, is from east to west. There are two springs on the southern or left bank, rising from marshes, and two on the opposite bank; the most western of which, called the Gum Lick, is at the point where a small tributary joins the principal stream. The quaking bogs on this side are now more than fifteen acres in extent; but all the marshes were formerly larger, before the surrounding forest was partially cleared away. Within the memory of persons now living, the wild bisons or buffaloes crowded to these springs; but they have retreated many years, and are now as unknown to the inhabitants as the Mastodon itself. The bog in the spots where the salt springs rise is so soft, that a pole may be forced down into it many yards perpendicularly. "The greater numbers both of the entire skeletons and the separate bones have been taken up from black mud, about twelve feet below the level of the Creek. It is supposed that the bones of the mastodons found here could not have belonged to less than one hundred individuals: those of the fossil Elephant (_Elephas primigenius_) to twenty; besides which a few bones of the Megalonyx, and of a species of stag, horse, and bison, are stated to have been collected. The greatest depth of the black mud has not been ascertained; it is composed chiefly of clay, with a mixture of calcareous matter and sand, and contains 5 parts in 100 of sulphate of lime, with some animal matter. Layers of gravel occur in the midst of it at various depths. It contains remains of seeds, and of several species and genera of fresh-water and terrestrial shells. It is impossible to view this plain without at once concluding that it has remained unchanged in all its principal features, from the period when the extinct quadrupeds inhabited the banks of the Ohio and its tributaries.