e Cumberland
Range, after traversing a magnificent region of beauty and fertility for
about one hundred and fifty miles, they reached the banks of the
Cumberland river. This majestic stream takes its rise on the western
slope of the Cumberland mountains. After an exceedingly circuitous route
of six hundred miles, running far down into Tennessee, it turns
north-westerly again, and empties its waters into the Ohio, about sixty
miles above the entrance of that river into the Mississippi.

It was mid-summer. The weather was delightful. The forest free from
underbrush, attractive as the most artificial park, and the smooth sweep
of the treeless prairie presented before them as enticing a route of
travel as the imagination could desire. There were of course hardships
and privations, which would have been regarded as very severe by the
dwellers in the sealed houses, but none which disturbed in the slightest
degree the equanimity of these hardy adventurers. They journeyed very
leisurely; seven months being occupied in the tour. Probably only a few
miles were accomplished each day. With soft saddles made of the skin of
buffalo, with their horses never urged beyond a walk, with bright skies
above them, and vistas of beauty ever opening before them, and
luxuriance, bloom and fragrance spread everywhere around, their journey
seemed replete with enjoyment of the purest kind.

Though it was necessary to practice the extreme of caution, to avoid
capture by the Indians, our adventurers do not seem to have been annoyed
in the slightest degree with any painful fears on that account. Each
morning they carefully scanned the horizon, to see if anywhere there
could be seen the smoke of the camp-fire curling up from the open
prairie or from the forest. Through the day they were ever on the alert,
examining the trails which they occasionally passed, to see if there
were any fresh foot prints, or other indications of the recent presence
of their foe. At night, before venturing to kindle their own camp-fire,
they looked cautiously in every direction, to see if a gleam from an
Indian encampment could anywhere be seen. Thus from the first of August
to the ensuing month of March, these two bold men traversed, for many
hundred miles, an unknown country, filled with wandering hunting bands
of hostile Indians, and yet avoided capture or detection.

If a storm arose, they would rear their cabin in some secluded dell, and
basking in the warmth of thei