sh than the rich
cane-brakes, the image of verdure and luxuriance, or tall grass and
clover. Down the gentle slopes murmured clear limestone brooks. Finley,
who had some touch of scripture knowledge, exclaimed in view of this
wilderness-paradise, so abundant in game and wild fowls, "This
wilderness blossoms as the rose; and these desolate places are as the
garden of God."

"Ay," responded Boone; "and who would remain on the sterile pine hills
of North Carolina, to hear the screaming of the jay, and now and then
bring down a deer too lean to be eaten? This is the land of hunters,
where man and beast will grow to their full size."

They ranged through various forests, and crossed the numerous streams of
the vicinity. By following the paths of the buffaloes, bears, deer, and
other animals, they discovered the Salines or _Licks_, where salt is
made at the present day. The paths, in approaching the salines, were
trodden as hard and smooth, as in the vicinity of the farm-yards of the
old settlements. Boone, from the principle which places the best pilot
at the helm in a storm, was not slow to learn from innumerable
circumstances which would have passed unnoticed by a less sagacious
woodsman, that, although the country was not actually inhabited by
Indians, it was not the less a scene of strife and combat for the
possession of such rich hunting grounds by a great number of tribes. He
discovered that it was a common park to these fierce tribes; and none
the less likely to expose them to the dangers of Indian warfare, because
it was not claimed or inhabited by any particular tribe. On the
contrary, instead of having to encounter a single tribe in possession,
he foresaw that the jealousy of all the tribes would be united against
the new intruders.

These fearless spirits, who were instinctively imbued with an abhorrence
of the Indians, heeded little, however, whether they had to make war on
them, or the wild beasts. They felt in its fullest force that
indomitable elasticity of character, which causes the possessor, every
where, and in all forms of imagined peril, to feel sufficient to
themselves. Hence the lonely adventurers continued fearlessly to explore
the beautiful positions for settlements, to cross and name the rivers,
and to hunt.

By a happy fatality, through all the summer they met with no Indians,
and experienced no impediment in the way of the most successful hunting.
During the season, they had collected large q