gained the heights of one of the ridges of Salt river, whence he could
look back on the Alleghany ridges, lifting their blue heads in the
direction of the country of his wife and children. Before him rolled the
majestic Ohio, down its dark forests, and seen by him for the first
time. It may be imagined what thoughts came over his mind, as the lonely
hunter stood on the shore of this mighty stream, straining his thoughts
towards its sources, and the unknown country where it discharged itself
into some other river, or the sea. During this journey he explored the
country on the south shore of the Ohio, between the Cumberland and the
present site of Louisville, experiencing in these lonely explorations a
strange pleasure, which, probably, none but those of his temperament can
adequately imagine.

Returning to his cabin, as a kind of head quarters, he found it
undisturbed by the Indians. Caution suggested to him the expedient of
often changing his position, and not continuing permanently to sleep in
the cabin. Sometimes he slept in the cane-brake sometimes under the
covert of a limestone cliff, often made aware on his return to the cabin
that the Indians had discovered it, and visited it during his absence.
Surrounded with danger and death, though insensible to fear, he
neglected none of those prudent precautions of which men of his
temperament are much more able to avail themselves, than those always
forecasting the fashion of uncertain evils. He was, however, never for
an hour in want of the most ample supply of food. Herds of deer and
buffaloes were seldom out of his sight for a day together. His nights
were often disturbed by the howling of wolves, which abounded as much as
the other forest animals. His table thus abundantly spread in the
wilderness, and every excursion affording new views of the beautiful
solitudes, he used to affirm afterwards that this period was among the
happiest in his life; that during it, care and melancholy, and a painful