58 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



warmth and wrapping his blanket about him to cross 

 life s Last Divide. 



These things were the every-day life of the French 

 trapper. 



At present there is only one of the great fur com 

 panies remaining the Hudson s Bay of Canada. In 

 the United States there are only two important centres 

 of trade in furs which are not imported St. Paul and 

 St. Louis. For both the Hudson s Bay Company and 

 the fur traders of the Upper Missouri the French trap 

 per still works as his ancestors did for the great com 

 panies a hundred years ago. 



The roadside tramp of to-day is a poor representa 

 tive of Robin Hoods and Rob Roys; and the French 

 trapper of shambling gait and baggy clothes seen at 

 the fur posts of the north to-day is a poor type of the 

 class who used to stalk through the baronial halls * of 

 Montreal s governor like a lord and set the rafters of 

 Fort William s council chamber ringing, and make the 

 wine and the money and the brawls of St. Louis a 

 by-word. 



And yet, with all his degeneracy, the French trap 

 per retains a something of his old traditions. A few 

 years ago I was on a northern river steamer going 

 to one of the Hudson s Bay trading-posts. A brawl 

 seemed to sound from the steerage passengers. What 

 was the matter ? &quot; Oh,&quot; said the captain, &quot; the French 

 trappers going out north for the winter, drunk as 

 usual ! &quot; 



* Especially the Chateau de Ramezay, where great under 

 ground vaults were built for the storing of pelts in case of attack 

 from New Englander and Iroquois. These vaults may still be 

 geen under Chateau de Ramezay. 



