96 The Winning of the West 



of riflemen large enough to beat off any prowling 

 party of red marauders ; and then set off to traverse 

 by slow stages the mountains and vast forests which 

 lay between them and the nearest Kentucky station. 

 The time of the journey depended, of course, upon 

 the composition of the traveling party, and upon 

 the mishaps encountered; a party of young men 

 on good horses might do it in three days, while a 

 large band of immigrants, who were hampered by 

 women, children, and cattle, and dogged by ill-luck, 

 might take three weeks. Ordinarily six or eight 

 days were sufficient. Before starting each man laid 

 in a store of provisions for himself and his horse; 

 perhaps thirty pounds of flour, half a bushel of corn 

 meal, and three bushels of oats. There was no meat 

 unless game was shot. Occasionally several trav 

 elers clubbed together and carried a tent; otherwise 

 they slept in the open. The trail was very bad, 

 especially at first, where it climbed between the 

 gloomy and forbidding cliffs that walled in Cum 

 berland Gap. Even when undisturbed by Indians, 

 the trip was accompanied by much fatigue and 

 exposure; and, as always in frontier traveling, one 

 of the perpetual annoyances was the necessity for 

 hunting up strayed horses. 7 



The chief highway was the Ohio River; for to 

 drift down stream in a scow was easier and quicker, 

 and no more dangerous than to plod through thick 

 mountain forests. Moreover, it was much easier 

 for the settler who went by water to carry with 



7 Durrett MSS. Journal of Rev. James Smith, 1785. 



