Now, it has been suggested already that lines of land travel have varied little since the time the buffalo and Indian marked out the best general courses across the continent. Mr. Benton said that the buffalo blazed the way for the railroad to the Pacific. In a general way this has been the rule throughout our history; the first routes chosen have often proved the best the tripod could find. Now it would be significant if it could be proved that there are numerous archæological remains along these strategic lines of travel. This, probably, cannot be shown. There is, however, strong evidence that is worthy of consideration. Many of the early routes of travel converged on certain well-worn, strategic gaps in our mountain ranges. It is interesting to notice how many archæological remains are found at these points. A few quotations from the _Catalogue of Prehistoric Works_ will be in point: "Stone cairns in Rabun Gap" (Rabun county, Georgia).[49] "Pictographs on large bowlders in Track Rock Gap" (Union county, Georgia).[50] "Ancient fire-bed and refuse heap at Buffalo Gap (bones and pottery found here)" (Union county, Illinois).[51] "Mound near Cumberland Gap" (Bell county, Kentucky).[52] "Cairn at Indian Grave Gap on Green Mountain ... in the trail" (Caldwell county, North Carolina).[53] "Mound ... said to be ... toward Grandmother Gap" (Caldwell county, North Carolina).[54] "Mound ... one mile southwest of Paint Gap post-office.... Cairn at Indian Grave Gap, in Walnut Mountain ... on south side of road from Marshall to Burnsville" (Madison county, North Carolina).[55] "Cairn at Boone's Gap on Boone's Fork of Warriors Creek" (Wilkes county, North Carolina).[56] "Cairns at Indian Grave Gap" (Blount county, Tennessee).[57] "Cairns in the gap on the state line at Slick Rock trail" (Monroe county, Tennessee).[58] "Mound 500 feet long, 250 feet wide, and 40 feet high ... 2-1/4 miles west of Rockfish Gap Tunnel" (Augusta county, Virginia).[59] Some of these cairns do not, in all probability, date back to the mound-building era, but the mounds and other archæological works probably do, giving the best reasons for believing that the earliest of Americans found the strategic paths of least resistance across our great divides. But not only in the mountain passes have our tripods placed their stern stamp of approval upon the ingenuity of the earliest pathfinders of America. In a host of instances our highways and railroads follow for many miles the general line of the routes of the buffalo and Indian on the high ground. This is particularly true of our roads of secondary importance, county roads, which in hundreds of instances follow the alignment of a pioneer road which was laid out on an Indian trail.