At the present salt-works, about five miles higher up the Saline River, on its south fork, near Equality, is the "Half-Moon Lick," where the earth has been licked away to a depth varying from twelve to sixteen feet, in the shape of a horseshoe, about 200 yards from point to point of the heels, and to the toe, or back of the curve, 250 yards. In this lick are still to be seen deeply-trodden buffalo-roads. On one bank is a slightly-raised ridge, in which were found imbedded a number of earthen vessels in a row. Mr. B. Temple, one of the proprietors of the salt-works, described them to me as between four and five feet diameter and sixteen to eighteen inches deep. After uncovering, they were not removed, but suffered to go to decay. The bones of the mastodon have been found here.[1]
Fig. 4.
On many of the fragments of the large pans in my collection the impressions of the cloth are perfect delineations of the fabrics used. Though differing greatly in pattern and in fineness of texture, they are all, with one single exception, made woven in the same manner—that is, by twisting two threads of warp around the single thread of the woof, precisely as the wire faces of laid moulds for forming paper are now made. The coarsest fabric that I find the impression of has warps about one and a half inch apart, with about five threads of woof to the inch. This piece is shown full size in Fig. 1; the double
- ↑ After writing the above description of the "Half-Moon Lick," I referred to Prof. E. T. Cox's report of it in the "Geological Surrey of Gallatin County," as published in the sixth volume of A. H. Worthen's "Report" of Illinois, and find that he has probably trusted to eye-measurement, and greatly understated the extent of this remarkable lick.
I wrote to Mr. B. Temple, who confirmed what I had written, and furnished the actual measures, as given above.
