This Is A Place Of Considerable Extent, Although Awkwardly Built, And For The Most Part Irregularly Laid Out.

It is a considerable fur depot of the Hudson Bay Company; and there is a recruiting station, from whence start expeditions of trappers to the Rocky Mountains.

I saw a large party of these adventurers, who were about to start on an expedition to these remote confines. It consisted entirely of young Frenchmen and Hollanders, who are preferred for the service by the company. They were of slight make, and little calculated, from their appearance, to encounter the hardships of such a life; but I was told they soon become hardened, and return strong, athletic men. The employment is, however, beset with danger, from the hostile dispositions of the various tribes of Indians in the western wilds, who view their intrusion with vindictive feelings, and seize every opportunity of attacking and annihilating small parties, notwithstanding their professions of friendship. Not long after my arrival, a party of trappers arrived from the Upper Missouri in two boats, which were loaded with buffalo and other furs. The stalwart look of these hardy mountaineers proved the hardening effect of their mode of life. They were brawny fellows of a ruddy brown complexion, of the true Indian hue, and habited in skins. These men, I ascertained, had been in the mountains for four or five years, during which time they had subsisted entirely on Buffalo and other meat, bread not being used or cared for. Their healthy look under such circumstances completely shook my faith in the Brahminical vegetarian theory, and goes far, I think, to prove that man was intended by his Maker to be a carnivorous animal.

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