164 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
at present is undoubtedly to be found in the fact, that our 
immense territories have as yet formed an outlet for such 
fierce unbending spirits, in the better work of pioneering, 
than the worse of emeutes, as in hampered France. Crowd 
such natures too much, and the friction assuredly causes an 
explosion! They are too combustible to be trusted near the 
fires which rage beneath such cauldrons as Paris! Give them 
air and “elbow room!”’ Cool them beneath the shadows of 
wide forests, and beside the rivulets that murmur, glistening 
here and there—or by the deep beds where mighty torrents 
roll and roar—then you make human beings of them—you 
temper down that savage restlessness of restraint which makes 
of them beasts and devils elsewhere. However stern the code 
their passions and necessities may cause them to adopt, yet 
it is sure to be based upon justice, and lead to wide utility. 
Society had always better let such men go—if they want to 
go—if it be even to “the fartherest Ind”—for it is as sure in 
that event to hear of them again for ultimate good, as it is 
certain, if they are restrained, to feel them for immediate evil. 
Young Boone passed through Virginia until he reached the 
wooded slopes, dark glens, and lofty cliffs of the Alleghany 
Mountains. Here at last it was lonely and wild enough for 
him. Here he felt was home and peace. Parts of this region 
were singularly picturesque and lovely, as they indeed still 
are. The fine open woods, heavily sodded with a rich and 
nutritious grass, afforded at that time the most abundant 
pasturage for great herds of deer, while now these lovely 
slopes are covered with large grazing farms, sustaining some 
of the finest cattle in the world. 
The young adventurer soon built him a little hut in a ravine 
on the side of a mountain, about twenty miles beyond what 
he then supposed to be the outermost boundary of settlement. 
He then quietly proceeded to explore the region round about 
—pursuing industriously, in the meanwhile, his chosen voca- 
tion of hunter. This was at that time a far more honorable 
