EDITOK S PKEFACE 



THE picturesque figure of the trapper follows close 

 behind the Indian in the unfolding of the panorama 

 of the West. There is the explorer, but the jrapper 

 himself preceded the explorers witness Lewis s and 

 Clark s meetings with trappers on their journey. The 

 trapper s hard-earned knowledge of the vast empire 

 lying beyond the Missouri was utilized by later com 

 ers, or in a large part died with him, leaving occa 

 sional records in the documents of fur companies, or 

 reports of military expeditions, or here and there in 

 the name of a pass, a stream, a mountain, or a fort. 

 His adventurous warfare upon the wild things of the 

 woods and streams was the expression of a primitive 

 instinct old as the history of mankind. The develop 

 ment of the motives which led the first pioneer trap 

 pers afield from the days of the first Eastern settle 

 ments, the industrial organizations which followed, the 

 commanding commercial results which were evolved 

 from the trafficking of Radisson and Groseilliers in the 



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