ALEXANDER WILSON. lxxxv 



procession occupied a length of road, and had a formidable appear- 

 ance, though, as I afterwards understood, it was composed of the 

 individuals of only a single family. In the front went a waggon 

 drawn by four horses, driven by a negro, and filled with implements 

 of agriculture; another heavy-loaded waggon, with six horses, 

 followed, attended by two persons ; after which came a numerous 

 and mingled group of horses, steers, cows, sheep, hogs, and calves, 

 with their bells ; next followed eight boys, mounted double ; also a 

 negro wench, with a child before her ; then the mother, with one 

 child behind her, and another at the breast ; ten or twelve colts 

 brought up the rear, now and then picking herbage and trotting 

 a-head. The father, a fresh good looking man, informed me that 

 he was from Washington county, in Kentucky, and was going as 

 far as Cumberland Kiver ; he had two ropes fixed to the top of the 

 waggon, one of which he guided himself, and the other was entrusted 

 to his eldest son, to keep it from oversetting in ascending the moun- 

 tain. The singular appearance of this moving group, the mingled 

 music of the bells, and the shouting of the drivers, mixed with the 

 echoes of the mountains, joined to the picturesque solitude of the 

 place, and various reflections that hurried through my mind, 

 interested me greatly ; and I kept company with them for some 

 time, to lend my assistance, if necessary. The country now became 

 mountainous, perpetually ascending and descending ; and about 

 forty-nine miles from Danville I passed through a pigeon roost, or 

 rather breeding place, which continued for three miles, and, from 

 information, exceeded in length more than forty miles. The timber 

 was chiefly beech, — every tree loaded with nests ; and I counted, in 

 different places, more than ninety nests on a single tree. Beyond 

 this I passed a large company of people engaged in erecting a horse 

 mill for grinding grain. The few cabins I passed were generally 

 poor, but much superior in appearance to those I met with on the 

 shores of the Ohio. In the evening I lodged near the banks of the 

 Green River. This stream, like all the rest, is sunk in a deep gulf, 

 between high perpendicular walls of limestone ; is about thirty yards 

 wide at this place, and runs with great rapidity ; but as it had fallen 

 considerably, I was just able to ford it without swimming. The 

 water was of a pale greenish colour, like that of the Licking and 

 some other streams, from which circumstance I suppose it has its 



