The author has taken the liberty of transferring an Indian tradition to the credit of their predecessors, the Mound-builders. From what source this tradition, recited below, was derived; whether it was the creation purely of a wild and barbarous imagination, or whether it came into their possession from some contact with the Mound-building race, the links of which are now entirely lost, are questions that have passed beyond answer from philosophy or conjecture.

"Some of the Upper Crees, a tribe who inhabit the country in the vicinity of the Athabasca river, have a curious tradition with respect to animals which they state formerly frequented the mountains, They allege that these animals were of frightful magnitude, being from two to three hundred feet in length, and high in proportion; that they formerly lived in the plains a great distance to the eastward; from which they were gradually driven by the Indians to the Rocky Mountains; that they destroyed all smaller animals; and if their agility was equal to their size, would have also destroyed all the natives, &c. One man has asserted that his grand father told him he saw one of those animals in a mountain pass, where he was hunting, and that on hearing its roar, which he compared to loud thunder, the sight almost left his eyes, and his heart be came as small as an infant's."— Adventures on the Columbia River : by Ross Cox.

Jefferson, in his "Notes on Virginia," has also attributed a similar legend to the Delawares:

"During the Revolution, a delegation of warriors from the Delaware tribe, told the governor of Virginia that it was a tradition handed down from their fathers, that in ancient times a herd of these tremendous animals came to Big-Bone Licks, and began an universal destruction of the bear, deer, elk, 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 he seized his lightning, descended on the earth, seated himself on a neighboring mountain, on a rock, of which his seat and the print of his feet are still to be seen, and hurled his bolts among them, till the whole were slaughtered except the big bull, who, presenting his forehead to the shafts, shook them off as they fell, but missing one, at length, it wounded him in the side ; whereon, springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, over the Wabash, the Illinois, and finally over the great lakes, where he is living at this day."

Notes to Part First, pages 162-164