The Story of Kentucky

he north. Here they made a camp and set to work to manufacture a stock of salt sufficient to supply the needs of all the settlements for a period of twelve months. From time to time a small party was sent back to the different forts with packhorses laden with salt. On their return, they would bring supplies, parched corn, and perhaps a few of the simple comforts that seemed almost luxuries to the hardy backwoodsmen. Meat constituted the chief article of diet for the workers of the salt factory. It required no small amount to satisfy the appetites of thirty vigorous men. Boone, as the most expert hunter among them, undertook to supply the camp with meat. The task was, to him, a thoroughly congenial one, which we cannot imagine the more civilized task of manufacturing salt to have been.

It was Boone's custom to go out some miles from camp every morning, returning at the close of the day with as much game as he could carry, and often leaving a quantity at a particular spot to be sent for with a packhorse.