LA BONTE'S ADVENTURES. 131 



A curious assemblage did the rendezvous present, and re 

 presentatives of many a land met there. A son of la belle 

 France here lit his pipe from one proffered by a native of 

 New Mexico. An Englishman and a Sandwich Islander cut 

 a quid from the same plug of tobacco. A Swede and an "old 

 Virginian" puffed together. A Shawnese blew a peaceful cloud 

 with a scion of the " Six Nations." One from the Land of 

 Cakes a canny chiel sought to "get round" (in trade) a 

 right "smart" Yankee, but could't "shine." 



The beaver went briskly, six dollars being the price paid 

 for a pound, in goods for money is seldom given in the moun- 

 tain market, where "beaver" is cash, for which the articles 

 supplied by the traders are bartered. In a very short time 

 peltries of every description had changed hands, either by 

 trade, or gambling with cards and betting. 



Before the winter was over, La Bonte had lost all traces 

 of civilized humanity, and might justly claim to be considered 

 as "hard a case" as any of the mountaineers then present. 

 Long before the spring opened, he had lost all the produce 

 of his hunt and both his animals, which, however, by a stroke 

 of luck, he recovered, and wisely " held on to" for the future. 

 Right glad when spring appeared, he started from Brown's 

 Hole, with four companions, to hunt in the Uintah or Snake 

 country, and the affluents of the larger streams which rise in 

 that region and fall into the Gulf of California. 



In the valley of the Bear River they found beaver abun- 

 dant, and trapped their way westward until they came upon 

 the famed locality of the Beer and Soda Springs natural 

 fountains of mineral water, renowned among the trappers as 

 being "medicine" of the first order. 



Arriving one evening, about sun-down, at the Bear Spring, 

 they found a solitary trapper sitting over the rocky basin, 

 intently regarding, with no little awe, the curious phenomenon 

 of the bubbling gas. Behind him were piled his saddles and 

 a pack of skins, and at a little distance a hobbled Indian pony 



