"... The main road from Louisville to Lexington [Kentucky] passed through it [Leestown] about a mile below Frankfort. This road had been originally made by the buffaloes, and crossed the Kentucky River at one of the few places along its extended course where it was practicable to make the passage."[117] "The roads [in Kentucky] first made by the buffaloes and adopted by the pioneers, are laid down with such accuracy that the position of those old historic places may be ascertained at this distant day by measurement from known objects whose positions have not changed."[118] The important part played by buffalo roads in the development of Kentucky is noted by Mr. James Lane Allen in _The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky_;[119] two notices of early road-making in that region are found in General Butler's _Journal_: "Sunday, Oct. 30th. This morning several of the inhabitants came to visit us. Capt. Johnston, a sensible man, proposes he will apply to the general Court for an order to mark a road from Lexington to this place [mouth of the Miami river], which Gen. Clark and myself recommend warmly."[120] "Sunday, Nov. 20th. We were this day informed by people from the station that the inhabitants of the Lexington and other settlements had blazed a road to the Big Bone Lick, agreeable to the proposition of Capt. Johnston of October 30th, approved and recommended by Gen. C. and myself."[121] CHAPTER IV CONTINENTAL THOROUGHFARES Turning from a particular region, where, because of the close proximity of licks and feeding-grounds, the buffalo made local roads, it becomes of interest to look at the country at large and note the great continental routes. For an animal credited with but little instinct, the buffalo found the paths of least resistance with remarkable accuracy.[122] Undoubtedly the migrations of the buffalo caused the opening of the great overland trails upon which the first white men came into the West. The nomadic trait which induced migratory movements was acquired through necessity. The animals moved in herds. The Central West, for instance, was, when white men first saw it, covered largely with forests; between the forests were open spots covered with rank grasses. These "opens" were of various sizes from little patches surrounded by forests to great treeless expanses miles in length and breadth. However large these open prairies, the herds of buffalo would in a short time exhaust the supply of grass and then troop on to fresher fields. Fires, grasshoppers, and drouth also tended to destroy the buffaloes' feeding-ground and to send them on long pilgrimages. Thus it is probable that in the day when the eastern portion of the United States was included in the habitat of the buffaloes, these animals were continuously trooping along over their great roadways throughout the summer, one herd after another, in search of fresh licks and springs.