EDITOR S PREFACE ix 



St. Louis, and the period of its greatest importance 

 and prosperity began soon after the Louisiana Purchase 

 and continued for forty years. The complete history 

 of the American fur trade of the far West has been 

 written by Captain IT. M. Chittenden in volumes which 

 will be included among the classics of early Western 

 history. Although his history is a publication de 

 signed for limited circulation, no student or specialist 

 in this field can fail to appreciate the value of his faith 

 ful and comprehensive work. 



In The Story of the Trapper there is presented for 

 the general reader a vivid picture of an adventurous 

 figure, which is painted with a singleness of purpose 

 and a distinctness impossible of realization in the large 

 and detailed histories of the American fur trade and 

 the Hudson s Bay and North-West companies, or the 

 various special relations and journals and narratives. 

 The author s wilderness lore and her knowledge of the 

 life, added to her acquaintance with its literature, have 

 borne fruit in a personification of the Western and 

 Northern trappers who live in her pages. It is the man 

 whom we follow not merely in the evolution of the West 

 ern fur traffic, but also in the course of his strange life 

 in the wilds, his adventures, and the contest of his craft 

 against the cunning of his quarry. It is a most pic 

 turesque figure which is sketched in these pages with 

 the etcher s art that selects essentials while boldly 

 disregarding details. This figure as it is outlined here 



