172 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



In the United States, the free hunters also ap 

 proached the mountains by three main routes : ( 1 ) Up 

 the Platte; (2) westward from the Missouri across the 

 plains ; (3) by the Three Forks of the Missouri. For in 

 stance, it was coming down the Platte that poor Scott s 

 canoe was overturned, his powder lost, and his rifles 

 rendered useless. Game had retreated to the moun 

 tains with spring s advance. Berries were not ripe by 

 the time trappers were descending with their winter s 

 hunt. Scott and his famishing men could not find edi 

 ble roots. Each day Scott weakened. There was no 

 food. Finally, Scott had strength to go no farther. 

 His men had found tracks of some other hunting party 

 far to the fore. They thought that, in any case, he 

 could not live. What ought they to do? Hang back 

 and starve with him, or hasten forward while they had 

 strength, to the party whose track they had espied? On 

 pretence of seeking roots, they deserted the helpless 

 man. Perhaps they did not come up with the advance 

 party till they were sure that Scott must have died; for 

 they did not go back to his aid. The next spring when 

 these same hunters went up the Platte., they found the 

 skeleton of poor Scott sixty miles from the place where 

 they had left him. The terror that spurred the emaci 

 ated man to drag himself all this weary distance can 

 barely be conceived; but such were the fearful odds 

 taken by every free trapper who went up the Platte, 

 across the parched plains, or to the head waters of the 

 Missouri. 



The time for the free trappers to go out was, in 

 Indian language, &quot; when the leaves began to fall/ If 

 a mighty hunter like Colter, the trapper was to the 

 savage &quot; big Indian me &quot; ; if only an ordinary vagrant 



