try, for some miles, before the highest elevations rose to sight,
rendered the travelling laborious and slow. Several days were spent in
this toilsome progress. Steep summits, impossible to ascend, impeded
their advance, compelling them to turn aside, and attain the point above
by a circuitous route. Again they were obliged to delay their journey
for a day, in order to obtain a fresh supply of provisions. This was
readily procured, as all the varieties of game abounded on every side.

The last crags and cliffs of the middle ridges having been scrambled
over, on the following morning they stood on the summit of Cumberland
mountain, the farthest western spur of this line of heights. From this
point the descent into the great western valley began. What a scene
opened before them! A feeling of the sublime is inspired in every bosom
susceptible of it, by a view from any point of these vast ranges, of the
boundless forest valleys of the Ohio. It is a view more grand, more
heart-stirring than that of the ocean. Illimitable extents of wood, and
winding river courses spread before them like a large map. "Glorious
country!" they exclaimed. Little did Boone dream that in fifty years,
immense portions of it would pass from the domain of the hunter--that it
would contain four millions of freemen, and its waters be navigated by
nearly two hundred steam boats, sweeping down these streams that now
rolled through the unbroken forests before them. To them it stood forth
an unexplored paradise of the hunter's imagination.

After a long pause, in thoughts too deep for words, they began the
descent, which was made in a much shorter time than had been required
for the opposite ascent; and the explorers soon found themselves on the
slopes of the subsiding hills. Here the hunter was in his element. To
all the party but Finley, the buffaloes incidentally seen in small
numbers in the valleys, were a novel and interesting sight. It had as
yet been impossible to obtain a shot at them, from their distance or
position. It may be imagined with what eagerness Boone sought an
opportunity to make his first essay in this exciting and noble species
of hunting.

The first considerable drove came in sight on the afternoon of the day
on which the travellers reached the foot of the mountains. The day had
been one of the most beautiful of spring. The earth was covered with
grass of the freshest green. The rich foliage of the trees, in its
varied shading, fur