Big Bone Creek is peculiar in that it comes almost wholly from five or six copious sulphur and saline springs, which issue from the earth in the marshy basin above mentioned.
When the first white hunters came here in 1729 the whole marsh bristled with enormous white bones—hence the name. Naturalists and collectors have now carried off everything in sight; but those who have patience to excavate the marsh are able occasionally to unearth bones of amazing magnitude.
In 1803, however, it was still possible to find partly buried skeletons intact, or nearly so. Marion Royce and his arksmen had not long to search for one, and were soon busy at their strange task.
The Royce and Ayer family traditions have it that the arksmen dug out a huge mammoth skeleton here, and were occupied until May 3 hauling it down to the ark on bob-sleds, which they constructed for the purpose. Many of the great molar teeth and numbers of the small bones were missing from this and all other skeletons found here; but, by overhauling several different skeletons, they were able to make up these deficiencies in part.
Like the deer, elk and buffalo, the mastodon was a constitutionally salt-hungry herbivore. Great numbers of them, venturing into the soft marsh about these saline springs, were “mired” and perished miserably, either from hunger or the attacks of the carnivora.
For centuries the numerous “licks” of this Western wilderness were veritable death traps for the larger game. Not only were the heavy buffalo and heavier mastodon bogged in the treacherous salt sloughs, but the deer and elk were constantly preyed on by panthers, wolves, and Indian hunters that had learned to ambush these localities.
The mouth of the Big Bone was now near to being a trap for the ark. An immense raft of driftwood had set into it from the rising current of the Ohio outside. For a mile below where the ark lay the creek was rilled by it, and so dense was the pack that it became a question whether the crew would be able to force a passage through it to the open river.
Otherwise, that part of the crew left aboard were passing dull days, particularly the two boys, Moses and Lewis; for Captain Royce had left strict orders with Shadwell Lincoln that while he was absent at the lick the men must remain closely aboard, and be constantly on guard against a surprise by Indian war parties, a precaution necessary from the exposed position of the ark in the narrow creek.
But the weather had now turned warm, and the lagoon, overhung by great trees, was like a hothouse. A flock of buzzards hung about them, often alighting among the poultry on the roof of the ark. Hawks and a pair of eagles also troubled them, and by night a large owl paid them visits.
Moses and Lewis longed to go ashore and hunt, but true to his orders Lincoln would not allow it. A little sport offered, shooting turkey gobblers, numbers of which, allured by the plaintive “yeapings” of the turkeys aboard the ark, appeared on the creek bank. One ambitious young gobbler flew out to them of his own accord, and began “strutting” on the roof.