their knapsacks over their shoulders, and leaving their temporary
shelter to benefit any who might come after them, resumed their route.
They had not proceeded far before an animal stretched on the ground
attracted attention. It was a dead panther. By comparing the size of the
ball, which had killed it, with those used by Boone, the party were
satisfied that this was the same animal he had shot the night after the
storm.

During the day they began the ascent of the ridge of the Alleghany, that
had for some days bounded their view. The mountainous character of the
country, 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