Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 3).djvu/41

 be Elephants are found in the neighborhood.[26] It is to be presumed that those bones belonged to marine Individuals, judging by the great abundance of debris of marine bodies collected in those places.

The 4th started from Washington; passed by a place where the soil is impregnated with saline substances and whither the Buffaloes used to go in great numbers to lick the particles of Salt continually exuding from the surface of the Soil. There are at this spot springs whose water is bitter, putrid, blackish and full of mephitic air which frees itself at the slightest movement of the soil by the bubbles appearing on the surface of the spring as one approaches. The people living in the neighborhood erect ovens with kettles and extract Salt by the evaporation of the water.[27] We traveled 33 Miles.

The 5th we made 27 miles and, at an early hour, reached Lexington,[28] the chief town amongst the Settlements of the State of Kentuckey. We passed a small Settlement, looked upon as a town and called Paris, the capital of Bourbon county.[29] It contains about 18 houses.