In the fall, when the hickories had turned yellow and the oaks deep red, during the weeks of still, hazy weather that mark the Indian summer, their favorite hunting season, [Footnote:  Usually early in November.—­McAfee MSS.] the savages again filled the land, and Logan was obliged to repeat his perilous journey. [Footnote:  Marshall, 50.] He also continually led small bands of his followers against the Indian war—­and hunting-parties, sometimes surprising and dispersing them, and harassing them greatly.  Moreover he hunted steadily throughout the year to keep the station in meat, for the most skilful hunters were, in those days of scarcity, obliged to spend much of their time in the chase.  Once, while at a noted game lick, [Footnote:  These game licks were common, and were of enormous extent.  Multitudes of game, through countless generations, had tramped the ground bare of vegetation, and had made deep pits and channels with their hoofs and tongues.  See McAfee MSS.  Sometimes the licks covered acres of ground, while the game trails leading towards them through the wood were as broad as streets, even 100 feet wide.  I have myself seen small game licks, the largest not a hundred feet across, in the Selkirks, Coeur d’Alenes, and Bighorns, the ground all tramped up by the hoofs of elk, deer, wild sheep, and white goats, with deep furrows and hollows where the saline deposits existed.  In the Little Missouri Bad Lands there is so much mineral matter that no regular licks are needed.  As the game is killed off the licks become overgrown and lost.] waiting for deer, he was surprised by the Indians, and by their fire was wounded in the breast and had his right arm broken.  Nevertheless he sprang on his horse and escaped, though the savages were so close that one, leaping at him, for a moment grasped the tail of the horse.  Every one of these pioneer leaders, from Clark and Boon to Sevier and Robertson, was required constantly to expose his life; each lost sons or brothers at the hands of the Indians, and each thinned the ranks of the enemy with his own rifle.  In such a primitive state of society the man who led others was expected to show strength of body no less than strength of mind and heart; he depended upon his physical prowess almost as much as upon craft, courage, and headwork.  The founder and head of each little community needed not only a shrewd brain and commanding temper, but also the thews and training to make him excel as woodsman and hunter, and the heart and eye to enable him to stand foremost in every Indian battle.

    Clark Shares in the Defense of Kentucky.