Hats Of The Most Ample Brim And Longest Nap;
Coats With Buttons That Shone Like Mirrors, And Pantaloons Of The
Most ample plenitude, took place of the well-worn trapper's
equipments; and the happy wearers might be seen strolling about
In all directions, scattering their silver like sailors just from
a cruise.
The worthy captain, however, seems by no means to have shared the
excitement of his men, on finding himself once more in the
thronged resorts of civilized life, but, on the contrary, to have
looked back to the wilderness with regret. "Though the prospect,"
says he, "of once more tasting the blessings of peaceful society,
and passing days and nights under the calm guardianship of the
laws, was not without its attractions; yet to those of us whose
whole lives had been spent in the stirring excitement and
perpetual watchfulness of adventures in the wilderness, the
change was far from promising an increase of that contentment and
inward satisfaction most conducive to happiness. He who, like
myself, has roved almost from boyhood among the children of the
forest, and over the unfurrowed plains and rugged heights of the
western wastes, will not be startled to learn, that
notwithstanding all the fascinations of the world on this
civilized side of the mountains, I would fain make my bow to the
splendors and gayeties of the metropolis, and plunge again amidst
the hardships and perils of the wilderness."
We have only to add that the affairs of the captain have been
satisfactorily arranged with the War Department, and that he is
actually in service at Fort Gibson, on our western frontier,
where we hope he may meet with further opportunities of indulging
his peculiar tastes, and of collecting graphic and characteristic
details of the great western wilds and their motley inhabitants.
-
We here close our picturings of the Rocky Mountains and their
wild inhabitants, and of the wild life that prevails there; which
we have been anxious to fix on record, because we are aware that
this singular state of things is full of mutation, and must soon
undergo great changes, if not entirely pass away. The fur trade
itself, which has given life to all this portraiture, is
essentially evanescent. Rival parties of trappers soon exhaust
the streams, especially when competition renders them heedless
and wasteful of the beaver. The furbearing animals extinct, a
complete change will come over the scene; the gay free trapper
and his steed, decked out in wild array, and tinkling with bells
and trinketry; the savage war chief, plumed and painted and ever
on the prowl; the traders' cavalcade, winding through defiles or
over naked plains, with the stealthy war party lurking on its
trail; the buffalo chase, the hunting camp, the mad carouse in
the midst of danger, the night attack, the stampede, the scamper,
the fierce skirmish among rocks and cliffs - all this romance
of savage life, which yet exists among the mountains, will then
exist but in frontier story, and seem like the fictions of
chivalry or fairy tale.
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