the hunting shirt, and the seams of the leggings, were adorned with
fringes. The under garments were of coarse cotton. A leather belt
encircled the body; on the right side was suspended the tomahawk, to be
used as a hatchet: on the left side was the hunting-knife, powder-horn,
bullet-pouch, and other appendages indispensable for a hunter. Each
person bore his trusty rifle; and, as the party slowly made their
toilsome way amid the shrubs, and over the logs and loose rocks that
accident had thrown into the obscure trail which they were following,
each man kept a sharp look-out, as though danger or a lurking enemy was
near. Their garments were soiled and rent, the unavoidable result of
long traveling and exposure to the heavy rains that had fallen; for the
weather had been stormy and most uncomfortable, and they had traversed
a mountainous wilderness for several hundred miles. The leader of the
party was of full size, with a hardy, robust, sinewy frame, and keen,
piercing, hazel eyes, that glanced with quickness at every object as
they passed on, now cast forward in the direction they were traveling
for signs of an old trail, and in the next moment directed askance
into the dense thicket, or into the deep ravine, as if watching some
concealed enemy. The reader will recognize in this man the pioneer
Boone, at the head of his companions."

[Illustration: BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY.]

"Toward the time of the setting sun, the party had reached the summit
of the mountain range, up which they had toiled for some three or four
hours, and which had bounded their prospect to the west during the day.
Here new and indescribable scenery opened to their view. Before them,
for an immense distance, as if spread out on a map, lay the rich and
beautiful vales watered by the Kentucky River; for they had now reached
one of its northern branches. The country immediately before them, to