The
Consequence Is That They Are Less Hardy, Self-Dependent And
Game-Spirited Than The Mountaineer.
If the latter by chance comes
among them on his way to and from the settlements, he is like
A
game-cock among the common roosters of the poultry-yard.
Accustomed to live in tents, or to bivouac in the open air, he
despises the comforts and is impatient of the confinement of the
log-house. If his meal is not ready in season, he takes his
rifle, hies to the forest or prairie, shoots his own game, lights
his fire, and cooks his repast. With his horse and his rifle, he
is independent of the world, and spurns at all its restraints.
The very superintendents at the lower posts will not put him to
mess with the common men, the hirelings of the establishment, but
treat him as something superior.
There is, perhaps, no class of men on the face of the earth, says
Captain Bonneville, who lead a life of more continued exertion,
peril, and excitement, and who are more enamored of their
occupations, than the free trappers of the West. No toil, no
danger, no privation can turn the trapper from his pursuit. His
passionate excitement at times resembles a mania. In vain may the
most vigilant and cruel savages beset his path; in vain may rocks
and precipices and wintry torrents oppose his progress; let but a
single track of a beaver meet his eye, and he forgets all dangers
and defies all difficulties.
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