64 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



and with her merchants have originated many com- 

 mercial enterprises of gigantic speculation, not confined 

 to the immediate locality or to the distant Indian fur 

 trade, but embracing all parts of the continent, and 

 even a portion of the Old World. And here it must 

 be remembered that St Louis is situated inland, at a 

 distance of upwards of one thousand miles from the 

 sea, and three thousand from the capital of the United 

 States. 



Besides her merchants and upper class, who form a 

 little aristocracy even here, a large portion of her popu- 

 lation, still connected with the Indian and fur trade, 

 preserve all their original characteristics, unacted upon 

 by the influence of advancing civilisation. There is, 

 moreover, a large floating population of foreigners of 

 all nations, who must possess no little amount of 

 enterprise to be tempted to this spot, whence they 

 spread over the remote western tracts, still infested by 

 the savage ; so that, if any of their blood is infused into 

 the native population, the characteristic energy and 

 enterprise is increased, and not tempered down by the 

 foreign cross. 



But perhaps the most singular of the casual popula- 

 tion are the mountaineers, who, after several seasons 

 spent in trapping, and with good store of dollars, arrive 

 from the scene of their adventures, wild as savages, 

 determined to enjoy themselves, for a time, in all the 

 gaiety and dissipation of the western city In one of 

 the back streets of the town is a tavern well known as 

 the " Rocky-Mountain House;" and hither the trappers 



