The packsaddle then in use

"The packsaddle then in use was such a piece of workmanship as any man used to handling ordinary tools could, with a little ingenuity and application make. To describe it minutely in the interest of those who have never seen one of those caparisons of the past age: it was made of four pieces of wood, two of these being notched limbs; the crotches fit along the horse's back, the front part resting upon the horse's withers, the other two were flat pieces, about the length and breadth of a lap shingle, say eighteen inches by five, and were to extend along the sides fastened to the ends of the notched pieces. It thus bore some resemblance to a cavalry saddle. The making of packsaddles was a regular business, and very early there was a saddletree maker in Pittsburgh and one at Greensburg...When these saddles were used for riding, stirrups were fastened to the sides and the saddles were held to the horse by a rope, or girth, extending clean around. Pieces of cloth and worn out blankets were habitually put under the saddle to keep it from chafing the skin" (Albert, 181).

Albert, George D. History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co, 1882. Print.

Which cattle resorted to for licking

"A Lick was the place to which cattle resorted to for licking the salt water. When the water did not appear and the ground was impregnated, the cattle would eat the clay and it was then called a clay lick. In many places the water appeared in insufficient quantities and the clay and suck licks were then combined as to Mann's, Bullit's, and the Mud Lick, where it could be seen that the clay had been eaten for a considerable distance around although small quantities of water could be sucked up in places where it had been most trampled...The Upper and Lower Blue Licks were the only two places where the water ran in a fresh spring. At these places where salt water was to be found it oozed out in very small quantities and collected in muddy pools where it was sucked from the tracks formed by the tramping of animals of the that resorted to them, the larger proportion of which were buffalo. From none of these licks did the water run off; and where it collected was where the cattle discovered it and gone in a tramped. The licks where salt was made at them were all dug as Manns', Bullit's, and Long's" (Draper MSS, James Wade Interview, 12cc11-41).

Draper, Lyman C. Draper Manuscript Collection: Series Cc; Kentucky Papers. Chicago: University of Chicago Library, Dept. of Photoreproduction, 1966. Archival material.

Proceeded down the [Kentucky] River

"Kentucky River - Saturday, June 10th 1775. The people at the Camp we lodged at last night gave us some jerked meat. On inspecting our flour, found it does not amount in the whole to more than 15 pounds amongst 5 people. Must take no more bread but save our flour for soup. Proceeded down the River. These people behave very kind to me, I believe there is but two pair of Breeches in the company, one belonging to Mr. Tilling and the other to myself. The rest wear breechcouts, leggings and hunting shirts, which have never been washed only by the rain since they were made. Our Canoe very leaky. Determined to change her, the first opportunity. Camped at a Buffalo road" (Cresswell, 83-84).

Cresswell, Nicholas. The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774-1777. New York: L. MacVeagh, The Dial Press, 1924. Print.

This almost impossible task

“To understand the mentality and behavior of a people at three centuries’ remove, one must try to eliminate from his mind all the salient ideas and opinions that have helped to shape the thinking of the modern Westerner. This almost impossible task requires not only the complete eradication of ways of thinking that have become a matter of course; it demands substituting for them another set of ideas that were equally matter of course to the men of the earlier age” (Leyburn, 62).

Leyburn, James G. The Scotch-Irish: A Social History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1962. Internet resource.