JOHN COLTER FREE TRAPPER 175 



of the drift-wood. Friendly Indians did not conceal 

 themselves,, but came to the river bank waving a buf 

 falo-robe and spreading it out to signal a welcome to 

 the white man; when the trapper would go ashore, 

 whiff pipes with the chiefs and perhaps spend the night 

 listening to the tales of exploits which each notch on 

 the calumet typified. Incidents that meant nothing to 

 other men were full of significance to the lone voyayeur 

 through hostile lands. Always the spring floods drift 

 ed down numbers of dead buffalo ; and the carrion birds 

 sat on the trees of the shore with their wings spread 

 out to dry in the sun. The sudden flacker of a rising 

 flock betrayed something prowling in ambush on the 

 bank; so did the splash of a snake from overhanging 

 branches into the water. 



Different sorts of dangers beset the free trapper 

 crossing the plains to the mountains. The fur com 

 pany brigades always had escort of armed guard and 

 provision packers. The free trappers went alone or in 

 pairs, picketing horses to the saddle overlaid with a 

 buffalo-robe for a pillow, cooking meals on chip fires, 

 using a slow-burning wormwood bark for matches, and 

 trusting their horses or dog to give the alarm if the 

 bands of coyotes hovering through the night dusk ap 

 proached too near. On the high rolling plains, hostiles 

 could be descried at a distance, coming over the hori 

 zon head and top first like the peak of a sail, or emer 

 ging from the &quot; coolies &quot; dried sloughs like wolves 

 from the earth. Enemies could be seen soon enough ; 

 but where could the trapper hide on bare prairie ? He 

 didn t attempt to hide. He simply set fire to the 

 prairie and took refuge on the lee side. That device 

 failing, he was at his enemies mercy. 



