72 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



surpassing depth courts the cultivation of civilised 

 man ; and in every feature it is evident that here 

 nature has worked with kindliest and most bountiful 

 hand. 



For hundreds of miles along the western or right 

 bank of the Missouri does a country extend, with which, 

 for fertility and natural resources, no part of Europe 

 can stand comparison. Sufficiently large to contain an 

 enormous population, it has, besides, every advantage 

 of position, and all the natural capabilities which should 

 make it the happy abode of civilised man. Through 

 this unpeopled country the United States pours her 

 greedy thousands, to seize upon the barren territories 

 of her feeble neighbour. 



Camping the first night on "Black Jack," our moun- 

 taineers here cut each man a spare hickory wiping- 

 stick for his rifle ; and La Bonte, who was the only 

 greenhorn of the party, witnessed a savage ebullition of 

 rage on the part of one of his companions, exhibiting 

 the perfect unrestraint which these men impose upon 

 their passions, and the barbarous anger which the 

 slightest opposition to their will excites. One of the 

 trappers, on arriving at the camping-place, dismounted 

 from his horse, and, after divesting it of the saddle, 

 endeavoured to lead his mule by the rope up to the 

 spot where he wished to deposit his pack. Mule-like, 

 however, the more he pulled the more stubbornly she 

 remained in her tracks, planting her fore legs firmly, 

 and stretching out her neck with provoking obstinacy. 

 Truth to tell, it does require the temper of a thousand 



