{29} CHAPTER II
The Ohio below the Rapids at Louisville—Ascent of the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio to St. Louis.[043]
Our small boat descended over the rapids without injury; and having taken on board some wood near New Albany, we proceeded on our voyage, with a pressure of steam equalling one hundred pounds to the square inch, upon all parts of the engine exposed to its immediate operation. This enabled us to descend, at the rate of ten miles per hour. A small island in the Ohio, about twenty-three miles below the rapids, is called Flint Island, from the great numbers of fragments of flints, broken arrow points, and various instruments of stone, heretofore used by the Indians, which are found there on turning up the soil. This island has probably been the favourite residence of some tribe, particularly expert in the manufacture of those rude implements, with which the wants of the aboriginal Americans were supplied. The stone employed in these manufactures appears to have been, in most instances, that compact flint, which occurs in nodular masses, in the secondary limestones. In one instance we met with a triangular prism, of a very hard and compact aggregate of felspar, and hornblende, unlike any rock we have seen in the valley of the Mississippi. This prism was about five inches long, with faces of about {30} an inch in width, and was perforated, from end to end, forming a complete tube, with an orifice about half an inch in diameter, and[pg078] smoothly polished, both within and without. We were never able to discover to what use this implement could have been applied; nor do we recollect to have met with accounts of any thing analogous to it, except, perhaps, those "tubes of a very hard stone" mentioned by the Jesuit Venegas, as used by the natives of California, in their treatment of the sick.[044] That it may have passed, by means of the intercourse of various tribes of Indians, from the primitive mountains of California to the rapids of the Ohio, is not, perhaps, improbable. Indirect methods of communication may have conveyed the productions of one part of the continent to another very remote from it. The savages of the Missouri receive an intoxicating bean from their neighbours on the south and west; these again must probably procure it from other tribes inhabiting, or occasionally visiting, the tropical regions.
In the Philadelphia museum are many Indian pipes of that red indurated clay, found only (as far as hitherto known) on the Pipe Stone branch of the Little Sioux river of the Missouri; one of these, however, was found on the banks of the Rio de la Plata, in South America: several were found in the territory now called New England, and in the north-eastern part of the continent.
On the 26th we passed the mouth of the Wabash, and[pg079] arrived at Shawaneetown,[045] ten miles below. Near the mouth of the Wabash, an accident happened to the engine, which rendered it necessary for us to drift down, until we should arrive at some place where repairs might be made. Some of the gentlemen of the party determined to go on shore, and walk to Shawaneetown. In swimming across a creek, {31} three miles above that place, Lieutenant Graham dropped his rifle in the water, and having spent some time in attempts to recover it, did not arrive at Shawaneetown until after the boat had reached that place.
On the 27th, several of the party went out to hunt in the forests and swamps, north-west of Shawaneetown. At about four miles' distance from the Ohio, they arrived at the banks of a small pond, three miles long, and only three or four hundred yards wide. Here they killed a turkey; and some small birds. On the bank of the pond, was found a specimen of the Lake Erie tortoise,[046] depositing its eggs in the sand, at about twenty yards' distance from the water. It had made, with its feet, a hole in the sand, two inches in diameter and four inches in depth, enlarging towards the bottom to three inches. This species occurs frequently in the pools and stagnant waters along the Ohio. We first met with it near the rapids at Louisville. Among other birds, we noticed about Shawaneetown, the pileated woodpecker, the minute tern, numerous flocks of the psittacus caroliniensis, two broods of young wood duck, some gulls, and semipalmated sandpipers. The terns appear to be attracted hither by great[pg080] numbers of a species of phryganea, with which we found the stomachs of some of them filled. The semipalmated sandpipers were in large flocks, and did not appear stationary.
We left Shawaneetown at twelve o'clock on the 28th, and stopped three miles below, to take in wood; then proceeding forward, at four P. M. we ran aground on a sand bar, seven miles above the "Cave Inn," or "House of Nature."[047] After much exertion, by means of anchors and poles, with the aid of the engine, and all the men, who were under the necessity of jumping into the river, we at length {32} succeeded in getting her off, and ran down to the cave, where we lay by for the night.
Early the next morning, we went to visit the cave, of the entrance to which two views were sketched by Mr. Seymour. It is a perpendicular fissure, extending about one hundred and sixty feet into the horizontal limestone cliffs, which here form the north bank of the river. At times of high water, the Ohio flows in, and fills the cave nearly to its roof. In this cave, it is said, great numbers of large bones were some time ago found, but we saw no remains of any thing of this kind. Impressions and casts of the shells of submarine animals are seen in the rocks, forming the sides of the cave, as in all the strata of compact limestone, in this region. The organic remains here, do not appear to be so numerous as those of the rocks at the falls, and at Cincinnati; and are much less distinct, and visible in the fracture; indeed the fracture generally exhibits to the eye no vestige of organic remains. It is upon the surface only, and more especially in such parts[pg081] of it as are in a certain stage of decomposition, that they are at all to be distinguished.
As far as we could discover, they consist chiefly of the caryophyllæ, similar to the radiated species, so common at the falls of Ohio; of the encrinus, but of this our specimens were not so perfect as to enable us to determine the analogy. Numerous other remains were exhibited, but not sufficiently characterized to be referred to their proper places in the system. The top of the cliff, into which this fissure opens, is said to be the favourite haunt of great numbers of birds of prey. This is not improbable, as many hawks and birds of prey always choose high and inaccessible cliffs to build their nests in. We saw about the tops of these rocks, only one pair of hawks, which we took to be of the red-shouldered species, (falco lineatus,) but a heavy rain, which commenced soon after we had ascended, prevented {33} us from procuring a specimen. About the cave, we found some fragments of pottery, arrow points, and other articles of Indian manufacture.