X THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



will be new and strange to the majority of readers, and 

 the relish of its piquant flavour will make its own ap 

 peal. A strange chapter in history is outlined for those 

 who would gain an insight into the factors which had 

 to do with the building of the West. Woodcraft, ex 

 emplified in the calling of its most skilful devotees, is 

 painted in pictures which breathe the very atmosphere 

 of that life of stream and forest which has not lost its 

 appeal even in these days of urban centralization. The 

 flash of the paddle, the crack of the rifle, the stealthy 

 tracking of wild beasts, the fearless contest of man 

 against brute and savage, may be followed throughout 

 a narrative which is constant in its fresh and personal 

 interest. 



The Hudson s Bay Company still flourishes, and 

 there is still an American fur trade; but the golden 

 days are past, and the heroic age of the American 

 trapper in the West belongs to a bygone time. Even 

 more than the cowboy, his is a fading figure, dimly 

 realized by his successors. It is time to tell his story, 

 to show what manner of man he was, and to preserve 

 for a different age the adventurous character of a Rom 

 any of the wilderness, fascinating in the picturesque- 

 ness and daring of his primeval life, and also, judged 

 by more practical standards, a figure of serious his 

 torical import in his relations to exploration and com 

 merce, and even affairs of politics and state. 



If, therefore, we take the trapper as a typical figure 



