Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 6).djvu/69

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THE FIRST EXPLORERS
69

day Dr. Walker's horse was bitten by a snake; " . . having no Bear's Oil," he wrote, "I rub'd the place with a piece of fat meat, which had the desired effect."

Passing the present site of Hinton, West Virginia, the party followed about the present line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. They crossed the Allegheny divide July 8, and Hot Springs the ninth. They found "Six Invalides there. The Spring Water is very Clear & warmer than new Milk, and there is a spring of cold Water within 20 feet of the Warm one. I left one of my Company this day." They reached Augusta Court House (Staunton, Virginia) on the eleventh, and Castle Hill on the sixteenth, having been four months and seven days on the journey.

Walker's hard tour amounted to very little for the plain reason that he never got west of the mountains. He found no good land and his report was depressing.


It remained for another brave frontiersman to go further and bring back the welcome news of large areas of splendid land in the Ohio Valley. In 1748 John