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, furnished its portion of the loveliness of the
surrounding landscape. The light of the declining sun lay full on the
scene of boundless solitude. The party had descended into a deep glen,
which wound through the opening between the highlands, still extending a
little in advance of them. They pursued its course until it terminated
in a beautiful little plain. Upon advancing into this, they found
themselves in an area of considerable extent, almost circular in form,
bounded on one half its circumference by the line of hills, from among
which they had just emerged. The other sections of the circle were
marked by the fringe of wood that bordered a stream winding from the
hills, at a considerable distance above. The buffaloes advanced from the