continued to direct his thoughts toward the project of exploring
the fair region of Kentucky. The adventurous William Hill, to
whom Boone communicated his purpose, readily consented to go with
him; and in the autumn of 1768 Boone and Hill, accompanied, it is
believed, by Squire Boone, Daniel's brother, set forth upon their
almost inconceivably hazardous expedition. They crossed the Blue
Ridge and the Alleghanies, the Holston and Clinch rivers near
their sources, and finally reached the head waters of the West
Fork of the Big Sand. Surmising from its course that this stream
must flow into the Ohio, they pushed on a hundred miles to the
westward and finally, by following a buffalo path, reached a
salt-spring in what is now Floyd County, in the extreme eastern
section of Kentucky. Here Boone beheld great droves of buffalo
that visited the salt-spring to drink the water or lick the
brackish soil. After spending the winter in hunting and trapping,
the Boones and Hill, discouraged by the forbidding aspect of the
hill-country which with its dense growth of laurel was
exceedingly difficult to penetrate, abandoned all hope of finding
Kentucky by this route and wended their arduous way back to the
Yadkin.

The account of Boone's subsequent accomplishment of his purpose
must be postponed to the next chapter.



CHAPTER X. Daniel Boone in Kentucky

He felt very much as Columbus did, gazing from his caravel on San
Salvador; as Cortes, looking down, from the crest of Ahualco, on