beeches which here grow to finer
proportions than anywhere else in the world, and said he was glad that
he did not have to cut them down and clear the ground, for the use of
the plow.

After they passed out of this great forest they entered the widest
stretch of open country they had yet seen in Kentucky, though here and
there they came upon patches of bushes.

"I think this must have been burned off by successive forest fires,"
said Ross, "Maybe hunting parties of Indians put the torch to it in
order to drive the game."

Certainly these prairies now contained an abundance of animal life. The
grass was fresh, green and thick everywhere, and from a hill the
explorers saw buffalo, elk, and common deer grazing or browsing on the
bushes.

As the game was so abundant Paul, the least skillful of the party in
such matters, was sent forth that evening to kill a deer and this he
triumphantly accomplished to his own great satisfaction. They again
slept in peace, now under the low-hanging boughs of an oak, and
continued the next day to the west. Thus they went on for days.

It was an easy journey, except when they came to rivers, some of which
were too deep for fording, but Ross had made provision for them. Perched
upon one of the horses was a skin canoe, that is, one made of stout
buffalo hide to be held in shape by a slight framework of wood on the
inside, such as they could make at any time. Two or three trips in this
would carry themselves and all their equipment over the stream while the
horses swam behind.

They soon found it necessary to put their improvised canoe to use as
they came to a great river flowing in a deep channel. Wild ducks flew
about its banks or swam on the dark-blue current that flowed quietly to
the north. This was the Cumberland, though nameless then to the
travelers, and its crossing was a delicate operation as any incautious
movement might tip over the skin canoe, and, while they were all good
swimmers, the loss of their precious ammunition could not be taken as
anything but a terrible misfortune.

Traveling on to the west they came to another and still mightier river,
called by the Indians, so Ross said, the Tennessee, which means in their
language the Great Spoon, so named because the river bent in curves like
a spoon. This river looked even wilder and more picturesque than the
Cumberland, and Henry, as he gazed up its stream, wondered if the white
man would ever know all the strange regions