LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 53 



and all, placed in this primitive oven, and carefully 

 covered with the hot ashes. 



A " heap " of " fat meat " in perspective, our moun- 

 taineers enjoyed their ante-prandial pipes, recounting 

 the news of the respective regions whence they came ; 

 and so well did they like each other's company, so sweet 

 was the "honey-dew" tobacco of which the strange 

 hunter had good store, so plentiful the game about the 

 creek, and so abundant the pasture for their winter- 

 starved animals, that before the carcass of the " two- 

 year " buck had been more than four-fifths consumed ; 

 and, although rib after rib had been picked and chucked 

 over their shoulders to the wolves, and one fore leg and 

 the " bit " of all, the head, were still cooked before them, 

 the three had come to the resolution to join company, 

 and hunt in their present locality for a few days at least 

 the owner of the " two-shoot " gun volunteering to 

 fill their horns with powder, and find tobacco for their 

 pipes. 



Here, on plenty of meat, of venison, bear, and antelope, 

 they merrily luxuriated; returning after their daily 

 hunts to the brightly burning camp-fire, where one 

 always remained to guard the animals, and unloading 

 their packs of meat, (all choicest portions,) ate late into 

 the night, and, smoking, wiled away the time in nar- 

 rating scenes in their hard-spent lives, and fighting their 

 battles o'er again. 



The younger of the trappers, he who has figured 

 under the name of La Bonte, had excited, by scraps and 

 patches from his history, no little curiosity in the 



