result that was destined to follow this
hasty expedition; but his counsel to the contrary had been disregarded,
and it was not a time now to dampen the ardor of the soldiers, on which
alone success could depend, by expressing his fears and laying himself
liable to further reproach and contumely. He had said and done all that
was consistent in his situation to prevent the present step; and he now
saw proper to keep his fears of the result to himself; the more so, as
a retreat was out of the question.

About dark the party came to halt, and encamped in the woods for the
night. Early on the ensuing morning they resumed their march; and
a little before noon reached the southern bluffs of Licking river,
opposite the Lower Blue Lick, distant from Bryan's Station some
thirty-six miles, and the place where, according to the opinion of
Boone, the savages would be likely to lie in wait to give them battle.

The scenery in the vicinity of the Licks, even at the present day, is
peculiarly wild and romantic; but at the period in question, it was
relieved by nothing in the shape of civilization. The Licks themselves
had for ages been the resort of buffalo and other wild animals, which
had come there to lick the saline rocks, and had cropped the surrounding
hills of every green thing, thereby giving them a barren, desolate,
gloomy appearance. On the northern bank--the one opposite our little
army--arose a tremendous bluff, entirely destitute of vegetation, the
brow of which was trodden hard by the immense herds of buffalo which had
passed over it from time immemorial on their way to and from the salt
springs at its base. To add to its dismal appearance, the rains of
centuries had sloughed deep gullies in its side, and washed the earth
from the rocks around its base, which, being blackened in the sun, now
rose grim and bare, frowning in their majesty like fettered monsters of
the infernal regions. As you ascended this ridge, a hard level trace or
road led back for something like a mile--free from tree, stump or
bush--when you came to a point where two ravines, one on either hand,
met at the top, and, thickly wooded, ran in opposite directions down to
the river, which, beginning on the right, went sweeping round a large
circuit, in the form of an iron magnet, and made a sort of inland
peninsula of the bluff in question. Back from this buffalo trace, on the
southern bank of the Licking, dark heavy woods extended for miles in
every direc