Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 137 



i 



some miles from the cabin, were cleared for mead- 

 ows, the fodder being stacked, and hauled home in 

 winter. 



Each backwoodsman was not only a small farmer 

 but also a hunter; for his wife and children de- 

 pended for their meat upon the venison and bear's 

 flesh procured by his rifle. The people were rest- 

 less and always on the move. After being a little 

 while in a place, some of the men would settle down 

 permanently, while others would again drift off, 

 farming and hunting alternately to support their 

 families. 26 The backwoodsman's dress was in great 

 part borrowed from his Indian foes. He wore a fur 

 cap or felt hat, moccasins, and either loose, thin 

 trousers, or else simply leggings of buckskin or elk- 

 hide, and the Indian breech-clout. He was always 

 clad in the fringed hunting-shirt, of homespun or 

 buckskin, the most picturesque and distinctively na- 

 tional dress ever worn in America. It was a loose 

 smock or tunic, reaching nearly to the knees, and 

 held in at the waist by a broad belt, from which 

 hung the tomahawk and scalping - knife. 27 His 

 weapon was the long, small-bore, flint-lock rifle, 



ening a certain number of trees with a hatchet. They were 

 similar to the rights conferred in the West now by what is 

 called a "claim shack" or hut built to hold some good piece 

 of land ; that is, they conferred no title whatever, except that 

 sometimes men would pay for them rather than have trouble 

 with the claimant. 



26 McAfee MSS. (particularly Autobiography of Robert 

 McAfee). 



27 To this day it is worn in parts of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and even occasionally, here and there, in the Alleghanies. 



