Chapter I: Foreword

A century ago the western half of the American Continent was unknown. Vast herds of buffalo and antelope swarmed over its rolling plains; elk and deer fed along its rivers; wild sheep and white goats clambered over its rocky heights; bears prowled through its forests; beavers built their dams and houses along every stream. Occasionally a group of Indians passed over the plains or threaded the defiles of the mountain ranges.

A few years later the white man began to penetrate this wilderness. Beaver were growing scarcer, and men were forced to go further for them. So the trapper entered these unknown fastnesses and began his work. He followed up stream after stream, sought out remote valleys, crossed deserts. With rifle in one hand and trap in the other, he endured every hardship and exposed himself to every danger. He swam rivers, climbed mountains, fought Indians, and risked life in his struggle for fur.

They were men of firm courage and stern resolution, those trappers of the early days. About their life and their work there is a romance and a charm that appeal powerfully to the imagination. Jack Danvers was fortunate in that the man who taught him some of the secrets of that now forgotten life was one who had borne a part in the work of subduing the wild west, and in laying the foundations upon which its present civilization is built.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A COUNCIL OF WAR 1

II. A PLEASANT SPRING RIDE 9

III. AN EXPEDITION FOR FUR 18

IV. MAKING READY FOR THE TRIP 27

V. THE START FOR NORTH PARK 37

VI. TO LARAMIE AND NORTH PARK 48

VII. A TALK ABOUT BEAVER 60

VIII. THE WATER FOWLS' SUMMER HOME 73

IX. A TROUBLESOME GRIZZLY 83

X. A BIG BEAVER MEADOW 95

XI. INDIAN BEAVER LORE 113

XII. PROSPECTING FOR FUR 126

XIII. A LION'S LEAP 140

XIV. SETTING FOR BEAVER 155

XV. THEY SKIN BEAVER 170

XVI. OFF FOR NEW TRAPPING GROUND 191

XVII. TRAPPING THE MINK 209

XVIII. THE ENGLISH PILGRIMS 228

XIX. THE FIRST BIGHORN 246

XX. DANGER FROM THE UTES 264

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"WE'VE GOT A BEAVER, I RECKON" _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

TWO BOB-CATS PULLING AND TEARING AT SOME SMALL
THING ON THE GROUND 106

A BEAVER APPEARED WITH A LONG STICK, WHICH HE
PLACED WITH OTHERS ON THE ROOF 130

A BEAR, SITTING ON HER HAUNCHES, WAS LOOKING ALMOST
DIRECTLY AT THEM 186