Zadok Cramer. The Navigator. A Description of Big Bone Lick in Kentucky

A Description of Big Bone Lick in Kentucky

 from

Zadok Cramer.  The Navigator

 Animals bones of enormous size have been found here in great numbers. Some skeletons nearly complete were no long since dug up 11 feet under the surface in a stiff blue clay. These appeared to be the bones of different species of animals, but all remarkably large. some were supposed to be those of the Mammoth, others of a Non-descript. Among these bones, were two horns or fenders, each weighing 150 pounds, 16 feet long, and 18 inches in circumference at the big end; and grinders of the carnivorous kind weighing from 3 to 10 1/2 lb. each; and others of the gramnivorous species, equally large, but quite differently shaped, being flat and ridged — Ribs, joints of the backbone, and of the foot or paw, thing and hip bones, upper jaw bone, etc., etc., were also found, amounting in the whole to about five tons weight.




These bones were principally discovered by Doctor Goforth and Mr. Reeder of Cincinnati, who sent them by water to Pittsburgh, with an intention to transport them to Philadelphia, and make sale of them to Mr. Peale, proprietor of the Museum of that city. -- They were however while in Pittsburgh, discovered by an Irish gentleman, a traveller, who purchased them, reshipped them down the Ohio, and thence to Europe, where no doubt he will accumulate a handsome fortune by exhibiting them to the different courts of that continent.