Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/65

Rh the round, turnips, carrots, parſnips, pumkins, and ground nuts (Arachis.) Our graſſes are lucerne, ſt. foin, burnet, timothy, ray and orchard graſs; red, white, and yellow clover; greenſwerd, blue graſs, and crab graſs.

The gardens yield muſk-melons, water-melons, tomatas, okra, pomegranates, figs, and the eſculent plants of Europe.

The orchards produce apples, pears, cherries, quinces, peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds, and plumbs.

Our quadrupeds have been moſtly deſcribed by Linnæus and Mons. de Buffon. Of theſe the Mammoth, or big buffalo, as called by the Indians, muſt certainly have been the largeſt. Their tradition is, that he was carnivorous, and ſtill exiſts in the northern parts of America. A delegation of warriors from the Delaware tribe having viſited the governor of Virginia, during the revolution, on matters of buſineſs, after theſe had been diſcuſſed and ſettled in council, the governor aſked them ſome queſtions relative to their country, and among others, what they knew or had heard of the animal whoſe bones were found at the Saltlicks on the Ohio. Their chief ſpeaker immediately put himſelf into an attitude of oratory, and with a pomp ſuited to what he conceived the elevation of his ſubject, informed him that it was a tradition handed down from their fathers, ‘That in ancient times a herd of theſe tremendous animals came to the big-bone licks, and began an univerſal deſtruction of the bear, deer, elks, buffaloes, and other animals which had been created for the uſe of the Indians: that the Great Man above, looking down and ſeeing this, was ſo enraged, that