THE MOUNTAINEERS 83 



Yellowstone. A clash was bound to ensue when these 

 two sets of rivals met on a hunting-field which the 

 Rocky Mountain men regarded as pre-empted by them 

 selves. 



The clash came from the peculiarities of the hunt 

 ing-ground. 



It was two thousand miles by trappers trail from 

 the reach of law. It was too remote from the fur posts 

 for trappers to go down annually for supplies. Sup 

 plies were sent up by the fur companies to a mountain 

 rendezvous, to Pierre s Hole under the Tetons, or Jack 

 son s Hole farther east, or Ogden s Hole at Salt Lake, 

 sheltered valleys with plenty of water for men and 

 horses when hunters and traders and Indians met at 

 the annual camp. 



Elsewhere the hunter had only to follow the wind 

 ings of a river to be carried to his hunting-ground. 

 Here, streams were too turbulent for canoes ; and boats 

 were abandoned for horses; and mountain canons with 

 sides sheer as a wall drove the trapper back from the 

 river-bed to interminable forests, where windfall and 

 underbrush and rockslide obstructed every foot of prog 

 ress. The valley might be shut in by a blind wall 

 which cooped the hunter up where was neither game nor 

 food. Out of this valley, then, he must find a way for 

 himself and his horses, noting every peak so that he 

 might know this region again, noting especially the 

 peaks with the black rock walls; for where the rock 

 is black snow has not clung, and the mountain face will 

 not change; and where snow cannot stick, a man can 

 not climb; and the peak is a good one for the trapper 

 to shun. 



One, two, three seasons have often slipped away be- 



