Chapter 44

44.

Outfit of a trapper Risks to which he is subjected

Partnership of trappers Enmity of Indians Distant smoke A

country on fire Gun Greek Grand Rond Fine pastures

Perplexities in a smoky country Conflagration of forests.

IT had been the intention of Captain Bonneville, in descending

along Snake River, to scatter his trappers upon the smaller

streams. In this way a range of country is trapped by small

detachments from a main body. The outfit of a trapper is

generally a rifle, a pound of powder, and four pounds of lead,

with a bullet mould, seven traps, an axe, a hatchet, a knife and

awl, a camp kettle, two blankets, and, where supplies are plenty,

seven pounds of flour. He has, generally, two or three horses, to

carry himself and his baggage and peltries. Two trappers

commonly go together, for the purposes of mutual assistance and

support; a larger party could not easily escape the eyes of the

Indians. It is a service of peril, and even more so at present

than formerly, for the Indians, since they have got into the

habit of trafficking peltries with the traders, have learned the

value of the beaver, and look upon the trappers as poachers, who

are filching the riches from their streams, and interfering with

their market. They make no hesitation, therefore, to murder the

solitary trapper, and thus destroy a competitor, while they

possess themselves of his spoils. It is with regret we add, too,

that this hostility has in many cases been instigated by traders,

desirous of injuring their rivals, but who have themselves often

reaped the fruits of the mischief they have sown.

When two trappers undertake any considerable stream, their mode

of proceeding is, to hide their horses in some lonely glen, where

they can graze unobserved. They then build a small hut, dig out

a canoe from a cotton-wood tree, and in this poke along shore

silently, in the evening, and set their traps. These they revisit

in the same silent way at daybreak. When they take any beaver

they bring it home, skin it, stretch the skins on sticks to dry,

and feast upon the flesh. The body, hung up before the fire,

turns by its own weight, and is roasted in a superior style; the

tail is the trapper s tidbit; it is cut off, put on the end of a

stick, and toasted, and is considered even a greater dainty than

the tongue or the marrow-bone of a buffalo.

With all their silence and caution, however, the poor trappers

cannot always escape their hawk-eyed enemies. Their trail has

been discovered, perhaps, and followed up for many a mile; or

their